Misha the Giant
by Aura Spirit
Summary: Teleporters are fragile machines, and to be caught between terminals while moving between the two has undocumented consequences. Misha discovers these consequences, and they are far beyond what he expected.
1. Mishap

"Alright, here's the plan. Scout, harass anyone who steps foot in the village, keep their attention on you. But keep grabbing that cash, alright?"

"You got it, hard hat."

"Demo, as soon as anything big gets here, bomb with as much damage as you can as fast as you can. I see you're using the Resistance, so keep a trap or two set up around the hatch, yeah?"

"Aye."

"Pyro, I want you to blast the carriers back. Pit them if you can. Other than that, reflect."

"Mmph."

"Heavy, Medic, stick together. Medic, don't forget to heal the rest of us if you can, please. Heavy, rage. Rage and push them back. Soak up all the damage you can."

"Da."

"Jawohl."

"I'll be keeping the teleporters maintained, and my sentry should pick off any stragglers. Dispenser'll be up and running, so feel free to grab all the ammo you need. We ready?"

Dell was answered with a chorus of affirmations, and the team ran towards the small cliff leading into the town. Dell ensured that a teleported entrance had been left near the hatch in case anyone was forced to respawn. He placed his sentry out of the line of fire, but in a position where any robots coming into the town would have to run towards it to get into range. Moving through the arches, he dropped his teleport exit inside the forward shop before placing his dispenser behind the rocks. He stepped back, twirling his Rescue Ranger around his finger. He was ready.

Heavy climbed up on the rocks, a faint crimson beam connecting him to the dispenser. Medic settled below him, his Medigun buzzing with high voltage. Tavish was laying a sticky trap beneath the cliff, firing repeatedly before moving behind the arches, taking a swig from his bottle before focusing. Scout checked the chamber of his scattergun before raising it, aiming towards the cliff as the rumble of mechanical feet striking the earth grew louder.

The first scoutbot leapt off the cliff, followed by the rest of its mob. They were quickly torn apart by Tavish's bombs, and the stragglers picked off by the Heavy. Notes fluttered to the ground, quickly snatched up by the Scout, the money gravitating towards him before it burned up. Pyro leapt from behind the rocks as a group of soldierbots appeared, reflecting most of the rockets that were fired- the explosives ripped into the soldierbots who were too slow, allowing the Scout to dash in to collect the scattered money. He was _just_ too slow to avoid the wave of flames that erupted from the cliffs, but he quickly extinguished himself with a bottle of Mad Milk.

As the onslaught continued, the team was pushed into the village by several giant demoknights, the Pyro having lost their head in the panic. Dell had altered his setup to fit the situation, pulling back his teleport exit as the Heavy protected him from a mass of pipe bombs. He soon reappeared once Dell replaced his exit. The tide turned in their favour once Pyro pushed the carrier into a pit, and they advanced back up to the arches. The arrival of two tanks set them back again, one of which almost deployed its bomb. The organised defence soon became a panicked mess, with each member of the team hard-pressed to hold their position. Even with an Übercharge, the Heavy still succumbed to the sheer number of bullets put out by a mob of scoutbots. Reappearing in the spawn, the Heavy groaned, buying a few upgrades before hefting his minigun and running towards the teleporter entrance. On the other end of the teleport, Dell was frantically repairing the exit as a group of demobots grew closer, the pipe bombs already arcing through the air towards him. He activated his Über canteen, the force of the explosions sending him flying through the air. He watched as the teleporter flashed, indicating an imminent arrival, before being destroyed, and the traveller not appearing. Putting the thought out of mind for the moment, Dell retreated, set up a sentry, and helped the remainder of his team now down the final giants before mopping up the smaller robots. They regrouped inside the spawn building, the Medic frowning when he did not see the Heavy.

"Where is the Heavy?"

Dell sighed.

"I guess he was teleporting when my exit was destroyed. I'll be honest, I don't know what's happened to him. He could be anywhere."

"Wait wait wait, Heavy's gone?" Scout asked.

Ignoring the Scout, Medic turned to Dell.

"How do we get him back?"

"I guess building an exit would be a good start."

-Beach-

From the moment he had disappeared, the Heavy, Misha, had known something was wrong. For a start, he had not appeared to the sound of robots meeting their ends by the bombs, bullets and flames of his teammates. Secondly, he could not see anything. While he was used to the brief blindness brought on by teleporting, he knew it did not go on for this long. He could still feel the reassuring weight of Sasha in his hands, which was comforting, as well as the belt of rounds across his shoulder. He squeezed the spooling trigger, and could just about hear the barrel spinning up.

 _Good. Hearing is returning._

He let go of the trigger, Sasha becoming silent again. Now that he focused, Misha could hear something, a sound that was unfamiliar to him- it sounded like water, crashing around in large quantities. With the blindness fading annoyingly slowly, Misha made his way towards the sound, his feet sinking into the ground, as if he were walking in heavy snow. Except it was warm and dry, not cold and wet. Reaching down, he ran his hand through the ground and immediately deduced that it was sand. He put two and two together and realised that he must be stood on a beach. He had heard Scout talking about beaches often, remembering that he had once tried to persuade Misha to go to one. He had politely declined at first before forcibly removing Scout from his quarters when he did not take no for an answer. With his vision returned to a point where he could walk safely, he looked inland, frowning when he saw that the beach was fenced off. Wading through the sand, he reached the fence and, after climbing over it, attempted to read the sign on it. He had no idea what it said, as it was in a language he had never seen. The one below made more sense.

 _ **Warning! Danger of dissociation! Please stay away from the beach!**_

Misha was confused. Dissociation? It was not a word he understood. Keeping Sasha raised, he made his way inland. The area was very flat, and as a result, he could see a city in the distance. Groaning to himself, Misha began walking towards it, across the scorched dirt.

Just half an hour of walking put Misha outside of the city limits. Deciding to take a page out of the Spy's book, instead of walking in, he waited, watching from a distance. He did not see any inhabitants, which he felt was strange for a city as large and as well-maintained as the one before him. As the sun slid beneath the horizon, night's chill beginning to bite, Misha made his way into the back streets. He almost spooled up Sasha when he heard explosions, but a quick glance to the sky assured him that they were merely fireworks.

 _Very few outside the city... Fireworks... Sounds like party..._

Sticking to the alleyways, Misha stayed out of the way of lights and roads while making his way to the centre of the city, the sound of music growing louder with every step he took. The tower he had seen from the edge of the city loomed over the alley he was in, and Misha almost stepped out into a plaza full of people while distracted by the enormous fish coiled around the spire. Ducking back into the alley, he leant Sasha against the wall before he peeked around the corner, arching an eyebrow at the sight within.

A horde of children were gathered around two trucks, on which stood other creatures that did not look much older than the crowd. All sorts of graffiti adorned the well-lit billboards around the plaza, and Misha noticed that every single one of them involved either the North or South Pole. The older children were either singing undermining the other. Neither action mattered to the crowd, they only cheered louder.

"Come on North! Let's hear your support!"

A chorus of cheers from the left crowd was matched with jeering from the right.

"No way! Penguins for the peng-WIN!"

Cheers from the right with jeers from the left. In his bemusement with the spectacle before him, Misha failed to notice the figure sliding up behind him. A crash and a gasp caused Misha to whip around, snorting angrily. His anger was quickly replaced with amusement and curiosity; a young girl had tried to move Sasha and was currently pinned underneath the weapon's many barrels. She was struggling to try and push it off her. Misha leaned down, placing one of his massive hands around the barrels and lifting Sasha with no effort. He was shocked to see that on closer inspection, the girl's purple hair was not actually hair, but rather a pair of large tentacles.

"Little girl should not try to lift Sasha. She is big girl."

The small girl smiled at Misha, but it was replaced by fear. She backed away slowly.

"Y-y-you're not an Inkling..."

Misha had trouble believing what he saw next- the child melted, her features fading into a purple mess which reformed as a _squid_. This time, Misha stepped back, shouting in shock before clasping a hand over his mouth. Too late. Another child- another Inkling, was already staring around the corner at him. He heard a mass of footsteps. Misha took hold of Sasha and ran into the back alleys, taking many random turns in the hopes of shaking off his pursuers. He spotted a staircase and hid under it, the shadows masking his face. The sound of footsteps grew closer, several Inklings running past his hiding spot before slowly walking back towards the plaza after growing bored of the search. Biding his time, Misha waited until a lone Inkling was walking past, and spoke.

"You!"

The Inkling froze. It was a boy this time. He slowly turned towards Misha, who took care to make sure his face was in darkness.

"Yes you. Where can Heavy buy cloak?"

"J-Jelonzo's shop..."

"Where?"

"In the p-plaza, the one with the blue sign."

"Thank you." He leaned forward, allowing the child to see his face. "Tell no one."

The boy nodded before running away. Making his way back towards the plaza, navigating by the sound of the music, he soon saw the shop the Inkling had told him about. Casting a glance over the audience, he made sure there were no stragglers on his route before quickly crossing and walking into the shop, having to duck through the door. He raised an eyebrow again when he realised the owner was not human.

"Heavy needs cloak."

"Sorry... Only sale what shown..."

The jellyfish pointed to the small mannequins with shirts that were definitely too small for Heavy. He picked up a mannequin, holding it beside him to exaggerate his size.

"Heavy. Needs. Cloak." Another thought popped into his head. "With hood."

Quivering and nodding, Jelonzo went behind the counter, returning with a tape measure and taking Misha's measurements. He went back behind the counter again, this time picking up a phone.

"Colour?"

"Dark Red."

Jelonzo put the phone down and tapped the counter.

"Ten thousand."

Rolling his eyes, Heavy began peeling notes from the pile he had amassed fighting the robotic army, setting down ten thousand dollars. The owner looked at him strangely.

"Money not correct."

"Is ten thousand dollars."

"Not..."

Heavy turned on Jelonzo, leaning in close.

"Is ten thousand dollars."

Shaking heavily, Jelonzo took the money, putting it into a cash register.

"Come tomorrow cloak pick up."

Spending the night in the streets of a strange city was much more comfortable than getting lost in the Siberian wastes, Misha had noticed. It was a lot warmer, for starters, and this time, he had his Sandviches, which still regenerated, much to his delight. Keeping watch from first light, he waited for the clothing shop to open. When the sign was flipped around, Misha moved, crossing the currently empty plaza and ducking into the shop. Folded up on the counter was his cloak, and Jelonzo merely pointed to it, letting Misha pick it up himself. He unfolded it, and quickly put it on, flipping the hood up before leaving. Outside was still devoid of life. However, he noticed that a large screen had been turned on, and a news bulletin was playing, presented by the two older Inklings he had seen the night before.

"Hold onto your tentacles..."

"It's Inkopolis news time!"

"So, Marie! You have a story!"

"Yes Callie, I do."

"Come on, let's hear it!"

The one on the right, Marie, turned to the camera.

"Last night, directly after the end of Splatfest, an Inkling came in and told us a very frightening story."

A blurry image of Misha appeared on-screen, taken by someone in the crowd.

"This creature was spotted just outside the plaza! Right under our noses!"

"Marie, what is it?"

"No-one knows, Callie! And word is this giant is still in the city!"

"Have the scientists said anything?"

"Even they don't know! It's a mystery! If you have something to say about it, drop it off at the studio letterbox!"

The report turned away from him and to a subject Misha was not interested in. Walking back out of the plaza, he headed out of the city and towards the beach, climbing over the fence and sitting down near the shore. The tide was out, and Misha inspected the place where he had arrived the night before. He frowned when he saw that there were two perfect imprints of his feet in the sand, and that the surface had actually become glass in a small area. He sat there for a long time, the tide growing closer every second. He dug the footprints out of the dust, rinsing the glass in the sea before sitting down again further up the beach. At that point, he saw a platform, cut off by the tide. He waded out to it, noticing the high tide point was several feet below another large platform inside a cave. Pulling himself up, he saw a rift that opened out to the surface near the back of the cave, too small to climb through, but large enough for a small squid. Leaving the cave and heading to the crack, he began to scoop handfuls of earth into it, pressing it down and compacting it to keep it in place. He then began tearing out the small trees around, breaking the logs up and stacking them inside the cave, far above the water line. He took a larger log and propped it in place, sitting down on it for a short while before carrying on his "construction".

He worked well into the night, creating a small fire pit and seat by a scratching at the wood with a pointed rock. It was hard work, even for Misha. At one point, he just collapsed, falling asleep in his home for the time being.

Light streaming into the cave woke Misha the next morning, and he was surprised to see an envelope with an emblem on it. Picking it up, he opened it and read the second iteration of the letter inside, as the first was in the unknown language.

 _To Mr Giant,_

 _We know you're out here, and we hope you read this._

 _You are a celebrity!_

 _That's right, you're famous! No-one knows who or what you are, not even Judd, and he's_ really _old. So, we want you to take part in an interview! To let Inkopolis know you're not just some monster that lurks in alleyways. If you're in, just come to the plaza studio today and show this letter, it'll get you past security._

 _Stay fresh!_

 _C & M_

 _PS: There are Inklings who would quite happily splat someone for this letter. Keep it safe._

Misha scratched his head, chewing on a Sandvich as he contemplated the offer. Donning his cloak, he took hold of the letter and stepped out of the cave, a flash of green and sharp gasp heralding his exit. He climbed on top of his cave, glaring at the Inkling hiding on top of it. She stared at him fearfully.

"Little squid should not trespass. Leave."

The girl morphed into a squid and blasted off, arcing towards the city, catching Misha and the surrounding land in a spray of ink. He cried out in shock, wiping it away as best he could before heading towards the city himself. He still stuck to the alleys, noticing that at several points, he was watched from the rooftops by more children. Ignoring them, he made his way to the plaza, which was now full of Inklings going about their business. As he stepped into the plaza, all conversations ceased as he walked through, his face concealed by his hood and Sasha by his side. He walked straight up to the studio and showed the letter. The Inklings on security stepped aside, allowing him access to the parlour.

"Aha! Welcome!"

Callie and Marie were already sat there, along with a camera. Marie was waving at him. He waved back. He looked at the sisters, and then to the extremely small seat.

"I will need bigger seat."

The sisters looked at each other, Callie going to speak before Misha held up his hand.

"Forget it. I will sit."

Moving the chair out of the way, he sat down heavily, the table rattling as he did so. Callie immediately started questioning him.

"Are going to take off the hood?"

Misha looked at the camera, then to the windows. Outside, a swarm of Inklings were pressed against the glass. Sighing, he pulled his hood down, staring directly into the camera before returning his attention to the sisters.

"Sooooo, what's your name?" Callie asked.

"Associates call me Heavy Weapons Guy."

"Why do they call you that?"

Raising an eyebrow, Misha set Sasha on the table, and Callie gasped.

"Oh... It's so big..."

Rolling her eyes, Marie asked the next question.

"Do you have an actual name?"

"Heavy would prefer not to say."

"No? Alright. Where did you get your weapon?"

"Made her myself. She weighs one hundred and fifty kilograms and fires two hundred dollar custom cartridges."

"That sounds... Expensive. And heavy."

"It costs four hundred thousand dollars to fire this weapon for twelve seconds."

"Amazing..." Callie gasped.

"So then, uh, Heavy. What do you do? Do you have a job?"

"Had. Was paid to defend facility from robots."

"That sounds... Exciting."

"Was difficult. Heavy has died many times."

"Get over it. Everyone in that plaza has died several times."

"Children are soldiers?" Misha asked incredulously.

"It's all fun! You've never heard of a Turf War before? Or Tower Control?"

Misha shook his head.

"Splat Zones?"

Misha shook his head.

"Rainmaker?"

"Heavy was paid to defend facility from robots. That is all Heavy does."

"You have got to try a Turf War at some point."

"What is Turf War?"

That statement snapped Callie out of her daze.

"You've never played a Turf War? Just when have you been living?"

"1972."


	2. Native Sport

**Hello again, and welcome back to the story. Thanks to Jawisian and TheFrostbite for your Reviews, and to those from r/Splatoon for their kind words in comments. Cheers, and I hope you enjoy the next chapter.**

"Engineer, are we any closer?"

"Nope. Doc, I don't know what's happened to him, but a teleporter exit clearly hasn't helped much."

The machine lay in front of them, the limbs stationary without a linked entrance. Medic looked at it, a hand moving to his chin.

"Build an entrance. We'll see if teleporting through it will bring him back."

"Medic, you know why I don't let more than one person to through at a time. What if _that_ happened? We don't want to end up permanently fused together and- what is it Scout?"

"I have a suggestion."

"Does it involve teleporting bre-"

"Yeah."

Medic threw his arms up.

"Ugh. Fine! We will teleport the bread instead."

Dell placed an entrance and Medic placed a loaf of bread on the platform. As it began to disappear, the exit shuddered and exploded, much to Dell's surprise. The bread had vanished.

"Oh, great. Looks like the chassis can't contain the energy from the teleport. Doc, we're gonna have to upgrade this thing the best we can to make it stable."

-Inkopolis-

"Come again? 1972?"

"Da."

"Wow, that makes you as old as, no _older_ than Judd!" Callie exclaimed. She leaned back in her chair, agape. Misha just scratched his head.

"What year is it?"

"We don't know. What we do know us that Judd is around two thousand, and he was in a pod for ten thousand years before that. Wow..."

"So. Is future for me. Engineer's teleporter has gone so wrong..."

Marie leaned forward.

"Is this Engineer one of your associates? Do you all refer to your titles?"

"Da. There is Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demo, Engineer, Medic, Sniper and Spy. And me."

"Nine of you... Do you know how you got here?"

"Nyet. Heavy used teleporter, Heavy appeared on beach. Heavy may not see friends of family again."

The large man sniffed. Marie's expression softened.

"Come on, Heavy. I'm sure your friends are trying to get you back right now! I bet they're making progress right now!"

As if on cue, a blinding burst of light filled the studio, the sisters screaming in surprise along with Misha. A large scorch mark marred the table. In the centre sat a loaf of bread. Dusting herself off, Callie noticed the loaf.

"Well, I was getting hungry anyway."

"Wait." Heavy held up a hand and reached towards the bread, quickly clamping down on it when a set of jaws opened on one end. He tore it in half. "Is filled with tumours. Get rid of it by burning."

"Where did that come from?" Callie asked.

"Teleporter. Looks like entrance is malfunctioning."

"The teleporter gives you tumours?"

"No, only in environments of pure wheat."

The sisters shuddered. Silence filled the studio for a few seconds before Marie started talking again.

"So it's clear you've never done any of _our_ sports, but did you have any events back home?"

Heavy smiled.

"Da, we had the war games."

"And what were these games? Can you give an example? Which one is your favourite?"

"Heavy enjoys Payload Race very much."

"What was the objective of Payload Race?"

"Both teams have bomb. Push bomb into other team's base first."

"That sounds similar to Rainmaker!" Callie said. "Except in Rainmaker, there's only one Rainmaker and it's also a weapon."

"Heavy will have to try it at some point."

Marie's eyes widened.

"We could show you a turf war now, if you want."

"Heavy does not want to hurt children with Sasha."

"You won't be hurting us. It... Does fire ink, right?"

Misha took one of the rounds of his belt and shattered the casing, showing the sisters the black powder inside.

"Sasha shoots bullets, not ink."

Callie shrugged.

"Well, I bet Sheldon could sort out some rounds for you, or at least give you an ink tank."

Misha thought about it for a moment before smiling.

"Heavy will face you in battle."

It had taken a while, but Sheldon worked fast. The weapons expert had said that adding an ink tank would be a permanent alteration, so Misha had vehemently refused it. Instead, Sheldon made a replica weapon based on Misha's information, soon emerging from his workshop dragging a huge splatling gun behind him.

"I altered the trigger slightly, so instead of firing in bursts, this one acts like your weapon."

"Thank you."

"I also changed it to passively regenerate ink, since you are not an inkling."

"Heavy is thankful."

Walking out of the shop with his new weapon, he headed to the address the sisters had given him. Waiting there was a helicopter, Callie and Marie sat in the back, with Callie looking decidedly downcast. Heavy climbed in and sat opposite them. Callie had hold of an enormous roller while Marie held a sniper rifle.

"Why is Callie so sad?"

Marie giggled, and Callie scowled at her.

"She really wants to fly this helicopter, but I made sure the pilot wouldn't let her get in the cockpit."

The craft took off, flying over the city until it reached a warehouse. The helicopter touched down and its three passengers got out. The sisters lead Misha inside, showing him to his pad. He stepped onto it, the ink beneath him becoming red.

"Alright, so the objective of a turf war is to cover as much ground of possible with your ink." Callie explained. "Walls don't count. And splatting either of us will cause us to respawn in a few seconds. Got it?"

"Yes."

Marie pointed to the several camera drones hovering around.

"I hope you don't mind us recording this."

"Is not a problem."

"Alright! We'll be going now, so listen for the whistle that starts the match!"

The sisters turned into squid and super-jumped away from him. A few seconds later, Misha heard the whistle and immediately spun up his weapon, ink flying from the barrels and covering a wide area in front of him. Grinning, he ran forward, red ink spreading across his end of the warehouse as he fired his weapon across every available surface. That was when he spotted the laser a split second before a deluge of blue ink hit him, forcing him back a step. He traced the laser and saw Marie aiming down the sights of her rifle. Ducking behind a wall, he spun up his weapon, preparing to jump out when he spotted Callie approaching with her roller, raising it above her head before bringing it down, ink flying through the air and covering a huge area. It hit Misha head-on as Marie fired again, followed immediately by Callie hitting him with the roller. He felt himself drowning before he reappeared on his spawning pad. Growling, he charged forward again, noting that Marie had moved and Callie was approaching him again. This time, he shot first, but missed when she merely transformed and swam away. When he attempted to lead her, he shot too far in front of her, but noticed that his ink forced her to surface. He finished her off with a quick burst. He staggered forward when a round from Marie hit him from behind, and he turned around only to see a faint ripple as the sniper swam away.

"Heavy hates snipers."

Focussing on the objective, he covered more of the ground in his colour as the sisters did the same, and he managed to take out Callie twice more since her weapon of choice forced her into range of his weapon. He had more trouble with Marie, whose rifle left him unable to use straight routes, lest she be there, ready to attack. By the time the ending whistle had been blown, Misha had fallen before Marie twice while she remained infuriatingly out of reach. They met up in the centre of the warehouse, Callie pulling a tablet from a safe pocket.

"Alright! Time to see who won!"

Callie looked at the tablet intently, an expectant grin on her face; the grin vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.

"What?"

She looked at Marie, who just shrugged. She turned the screen around to show Misha. He laughed. A wide stripe of blue ink was visible on an overhead image of the warehouse. However, playing back the video, Callie groaned and slapped her forehead when she saw that Misha had followed closely behind her, covering up her work in the last few seconds of battle. Misha's half was completely red, while a few streaks of blue cut across the middle due to Marie's rifle.

"Some people think they can outsmart me." Misha said. He extended his right hand. Callie glared at him before offering her comparatively tiny hand to be shook. Marie did the same.

"Not bad for your first game. Oh, does your weapon have a name?"

"Heavy did not think of that. Is it important?"

Marie raised her voice for the first time.

"Of course! Take our weapons, for example. This is the Eris Charger, a custom weapon designed by me for high power and low charge time. It's got less range than some Chargers though."

"This is the Tethys Roller, and it's essentially a souped-up Dynamo Roller, hurling ink insanely far but with the bonus of being lighter. It's less powerful than the Dynamo though."

Heavy looked at his weapon, considering the six barrels, enormous tank and dual trigger. The answer was obvious.

"Is Splasha."

"Splasher?"

"No. Splasha. Like Sasha, just with ink."

"And Sasha was your other gun?"

"Yes."

Marie smiled.

"Hm! I like it. Well, good game, Heavy and Splasha."

"Do the cameras have microphones?"

"No, Why?"

"Name is Misha. Tell no-one."

-Beach-

Misha woke up the next morning, yawning loudly before standing up off his bed. His fire had been boiling water all night, a series of tubes dropping fresh water into a bottle for him to drink while the salt built up in the main dish. Taking a quick drink, he put on his cloak and stepped outside, noticing another envelope bearing the Squid Sisters' emblem. Tearing it open, he read the inside.

 _To Heavy,_

 _We know you don't want your name publicised, so we didn't write it here. But we have noticed that you're living in a cave, of all things. We can help you find an apartment somewhere. Same as yesterday, but this time, not an interview. This will just be a conversation. No cameras!_

 _Stay fresh!_

 _C & M_

Folding the letter and placing it inside the cave, he picked up both of his weapons and left his cave, breathing deeply before he heard something that wasn't the sound of the surf. Rolling his eyes, he climbed on top of the cave again, noticing a puddle of green ink. Laughing quietly, he reached inside and closed his hand around the figure inside, taking care not to crush them before pulling them out. It was the same girl from yesterday.

"Little squid is persistent. Leave. Is not safe for you here."

Misha's arm was nearly torn out of its socket when the girl super-jumped from his hand. Rotating his arm to get rid of the pain, Misha began his walk into Inkopolis. This time, instead of the backstreets, he went in via the main road, ignoring the fearful looks he garnered from bystanders due to his cloak and two huge weapons. Walking up to the studio and showing his letter, he was let inside again, and he sat down with the sisters. Several large books were on the table, as well as a computer.

"So, Heavy. We decided to help you look for a home here instead of that cave you're staying in. Have a look, see what you think."

Sifting through the pages, he considered each of the properties, noticing the same problem with each one.

"Heavy is too tall for these properties."

The sisters shared a glance. Callie laughed awkwardly.

"I'm sure you can fit in at least one of-"

"Heavy is too tall."

Callie sighed.

"Alright, new plan. Renovate your cave. Make it nice. Add a door, our couriers say that it's wide open."

Sweeping the current stack of papers and catalogues off the table, Callie left the room before returning with another stack.

"Have a look through these, see if there's any materials you like. Like you said, things are too small for you. You'll have to get your furniture custom made. It'll be expensive, but..." Callie laughed. "Let's just say we can be very persuasive."

After several hours of planning and another hour of taking measurements, a construction team had been sent to the shore, ignoring the warning signs and beginning work on Misha's front door. The work took several days as it involved bricking up the entrance to the cave before the frame could even be placed. In the meantime, several Inkling engineers had helped him upgrade his water desalinating machine, turning it into an actual machine rather than a pot with a few tubes. A small generator powered the lights that had been installed. This sisters agreed; it had been a much better idea to upgrade Misha's cave. By the end of the week, the door had been installed and a bed delivered. Misha had built it by himself, since it was far larger than what an Inkling could practically work on. There was, however, a single worry gnawing at Misha, and he decided to approach Marie about it. Marie had been helping with the construction work while Callie helped with loading the trucks that moved between the city and the shore.

"Heavy does not have enough money to pay for renovations."

"Well, you'll just have to earn some by battling."

"Heavy cannot fight children."

"That's a fair point. You'd have an unfair advantage. We need a new set of rules."

"Heavy has idea."

Marie sat on one of the worker's chairs.

"Go on then."

"Is Attack/Defend."

"How does that work?"

"Is five or seven control points across map. Centre is neutral, rest are locked. Capturing a point unlocks the next. Be first to capture all points. If a point is not next, is locked."

Marie considered it.

"That... Can be done. Quite easily."

"Heavy will also go solo against Inklings."

"Yeah! We can sort that out! Come to the studio tomorrow and announce it with us! Your house is almost finished, so feel free to use the tent again. This is going to be great!"

When Misha emerged from his tent the next morning, he immediately noticed the pool of green on top of his cave, a pair of eyes dropping into it. Rolling his eyes, he went over to it, catching the Inkling in mid-air when she tried to super jump away.

"What is girl's name?"

Turning back into a girl wearing large glasses, a flowery shirt and sandals, she stared back at him, and he could see the fear in her eyes.

"Heavy is not monster."

"C-C-Corlu."

"Why do you constantly come to see Heavy, Corlu?"

"I w-wanted to leave."

"Leave? Why? Inkopolis is nice city."

"N-not when you're homeless."

"Corlu looks well-dressed for homeless girl."

"I make do battling."

"So Corlu wants to live with Heavy."

She nodded. Heavy laughed.

"Hah! Heavy has sisters back home. This will work." He leant down.

"Heavy has to go do interview. He will be back later. Beware of tide."

Half an hour later, Misha was sat inside the studio in front of a large screen. The sisters stood either side of the screen. Heavy waited off-screen.

"Hold onto your tentacles..." Callie started.

"It's Inkopolis news time!" Marie finished.

"We have a big announcement!"

"Do tell."

"We have a new rule set!"

"Thoughtfully explained by the Heavy."

Heavy stood up and walked into the camera's view, the graphics he had sketched appearing on the screen.

"Is fairly simple. Both teams start with two or three control points, depends if map has five or seven points. Middle point is always neutral at start of match. Capture it to unlock next point. Point behind it will be locked until the other point is captured by the enemy team. To win, be first team to capture all points."

"Keep an eye out for the new rules in the rotation!"

Misha stepped away while the sisters announced the current stages being used, leaving the building and heading straight to the lobby, seeing that Attack/Defend was being run in the standard battles. He grinned and selected it, waiting for the doors to open. When he was eventually stood alone on top of a spawning pad, he glared at the opposite pad across the Saltspray Rig.

"Heavy is coming for you!" He bellowed.

Misha laughed as the four Inklings looked between themselves nervously. When the whistle was blown, Misha headed for the central control point.

-Inkopolis-

Having battled for around an hour, Misha re-emerged from the lobby and into the city plaza, allowing Splasha to swing by his side. He tossed a now high-value cash card between his hands, yet despite his successes, he felt that something was missing. Something important. Looking around, he saw that the Inklings in the plaza had what he wanted, but he knew they would just move away from him out of fear. He was over three times their size, after all. He began window shopping, and soon found what he was looking for. Misha ducked through the front door and picked the garment from the window.

"These. I want them."

The shop owner, Annie, stuttered slightly when she realised who was in her shop.

"Oh... Uh, hi..."

"How much are these shades?"

Misha held up the Aviators.

"Oh, they're twelve thousand..."

He handed over the card, Annie scanning it while Moe glared at Misha. Misha stared back. At that point, Moe _growled_ him and Misha frowned in response, his expression becoming neutral as Annie turned around again with the glasses.

"All done. Thanks for buying..."

"Thank you."

Heavy ducked outside again, sliding the Aviators onto his face.

 _Yes, this will work._

He began his walk back to the shore, unlocking the gate that had been installed to let the trucks pass through before locking it behind him. He reached the shore.

"Corlu. Misha is back."

Finding it odd that she was not outside, he unlocked his front door, wrenching it open when he realised it was unlocked, his mood plummeting to rage when he saw the sorry state Corlu was in. She had been lashed to a chair, and pinkish ink seeped out of several cuts across her arms and legs. She was crying inconsolably. The same ink covered the floor, and on closer inspection after wiping some of the ink from Corlu, saw that it had burned her.

"Oh my God, Corlu, who did this to you?"

She looked at Misha.

"O-Octoling..."

-Half an hour Earlier-

Corlu had done some battles earlier that morning, earning enough cash to buy food for the day before returning to the shore. Something she had heard while in Inkopolis had stirred her worry, however. She had overheard whispers that the Octarians, the ancient enemies of the Inklings, were stirring beneath the surface. She tried to put the whispers out of her mind. But on her way back to the shore, before she got out of the city, she heard someone talking about how they had seen one. An Octoling on the surface. Corlu shuddered. She didn't want to meet one, she had heard the stories of their cruelty and bloodlust.

She wriggled under the fence and underneath the front door, stretching and setting the food she had bought down. Yawning, she decided that a nap was the best course of action.

Corlu was woken up by a clicking at the door. Frowning, she inked the wall of the house to look out of the window, squeaking in fright when she saw the mass of tentacles outside. At that point, the lock clicked open, the Octoling giggling and pushing the door open. Corlu bit down on her finger, trying not to make a noise while the Octoling snooped around. She then realised she still had her Splattershot, and took aim. The Octoling stopped, turning in the blink of an eye and hurling a Burst Bomb at Corlu, knocking her off the wall.

"Now what have we here?"


	3. The Forgotten Enemy

**Sorry this chapter took so long. I can't just write whenever any more since I'm back in college now. Chapter releases may get quite slow. Nevertheless, enjoy.**

"Engineer, what do we have?" Doc walked into the workshop, his eyes widening at the mess of machinery within. "Oh... Interesting..."

Most of the floor space was dominated by a large teleport pad, one that was noticeably bigger than Engineer's field counterpart. For a start, it had four arms, each with a vent on the end. Facing inwards were tesla coils, each of them sparking occasionally. Dell had built a frame around it as well, a chamber of sorts, the walls of which were bristling with wires and components. Several thick cables were attached to the nearby generators. Putting down a soldering iron, Dell turned to Medic.

"Oh, hi Doc, I was just getting ready for another test. I'm going to try and bring back that bread we sent a while ago. If you just want to flip that switch there, we can begin."

Doc did as he was asked, pulling down on the lever, the lights flickering as he did so. The arms began to spin, slowly gathering speed over the course of a minute before the coils in the centre arced, lightning flashing between the nodes. The light built up, Doc shielding his eyes from the glare as the machine hummed with a higher pitch, the floor of the building shaking as it reached capacity. One blinding flash and electrical discharge later, and two pieces of a loaf of bread were sat on the platform. Ensuring that the machine had grounded properly, Dell picked up the charred pieces.

"This wasn't the teleporter. The bread was incinerated beforehand." He looked at Doc. "It works. It works! If I can boost the output and get it to lock onto Heavy, I can pull him back through!"

"I bet he left some material on those Sandvich plates. That would work."

-Shore-

"Shh, Corlu is safe now." Misha carried on untying Corlu, who had managed to stop crying. She still groaned in pain whenever Misha brushed past a burned area, which only spurred Misha to work faster.

"How can Misha make pain stop?"

"Green ink..."

Looking about the cave, Misha saw the small pistol had been knocked into the corner. Picking it up, he used his little finger to pull the trigger, the ink still inside spraying across the pink ink on the ground. Picking up Corlu who sagged in his arms, he lowered her in, the girl sighing as soon as she made contact. Her face dipped below the surface momentarily, and when she resurfaced, her burns had been healed, as had her cuts. Heavy let Corlu float in her own ink while he did his best to clear the pink ink away.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Corlu whimpered.

"You don't have to if you don't."

"N-no, I'll talk. An Octoling came in here."

"What is Octoling?"

"They're the elites of the Octarians, the Inkling's counterparts. They've been gone for decades, but they have returned, clearly."

"What did it do to you?"

"She tied me to a chair and..." Corlu sobbed. "She tortured me for no reason..."

The girl burst out crying again, and Misha pulled her out if the ink and into a hug.

"Misha will not leave you alone again. Come. We report this."

He lifted her onto his shoulder. While Misha looked calm on the outside, inside, he was burning up. He knew that while Corlu looked unhurt, she would have psychological scars. Misha had some of his own.

 _No child should have such scars._

He walked back into Inkopolis.

"Corlu, where can this be reported?"

"Security station. That way."

She pointed down one of the main roads and Misha followed her directions, coming up on a well-lit building. He ducked through the door, the urchin on duty flaring his dull red spines when he saw it was Heavy who had entered.

"Yeah?"

"Reporting Octoling attack."

"An Octoling? Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Alright. What happened exactly?"

Misha turned to Corlu, who in turn hid her face.

"Octoling tortured Corlu." Misha pointed to the girl on his shoulder. "Left her strapped to chair, covered in ink and cuts."

"When was this?"

"Today."

"How long ago?"

Misha looked to Corlu.

"Two hours." She mumbled

The urchin scribbled down the details before handing the paper to Corlu.

"I need a signature, just there."

Corlu scrawled her name across the line before the urchin took the paper.

"Alright, we'll look into it. Can't promise we'll find anything, since no-one believes the Octarians-"

"Are you calling Heavy a liar?" Misha bellowed. "Corlu has scars no child should have. Heavy knows. Heavy saw Octoling."

"R-right. Sorry."

The urchin filed the report away, and motioned for Misha to leave the building. Snorting, he turned around, Corlu holding onto the collar of his jacket to avoid falling off. They headed towards the shore, the dark ink having faded away. Grunting, Misha opened the door, Corlu jumping off his shoulder to pick up her Splattershot. Misha picked up Splasha, allowing the weapon to hang by his side. He knelt down.

"Does Corlu want to go battling?"

She looked at her Splattershot, and then to Misha.

"A-alright."

Later on, Misha and Corlu stood alone on a spawning pad, five beacons spread across Saltspray Rig to show the capture points. Misha looked across the rig to the opposite team, seeing two Rollers, a Charger and a Shooter. Corlu was sat on his shoulder, her Splattershot sat in her hands. She noticed that Misha's shirt had become a neon green, much like her own tentacles. She tightened her grip when Misha tensed and leant forward slightly, preparing for the start of the match- barely a second after the whistle had sounded, he was running, Corlu spraying a path behind them on the off chance they got splatted. Misha completely neglected the side routes and low path, making a beeline for the centre point, Splasha spinning up as he came close, a deluge of green on the unfortunate Roller that turned the corner. The point flashed blue, the Roller having done just enough to capture it before his run-in with Misha. Corlu saw the second Roller approaching from behind, aiming to capture Misha off-guard while he recaptured the centre. She took cover behind Misha's arm, avoiding the initial flick of the Dynamo Roller before she returned fire, the Roller meeting her end. Misha was running again, moving to capture the next point. He noticed the laser just in time, spinning and grabbing Corlu out of the air when he mistakenly shook her off to shield her from the Charger. Misha threw Corlu up, and she hurled a Burst Bomb at the Charger, knocking her of her perch and into the water. Corlu landed on Misha's shoulder, steadying herself before nodding. Misha ran forward, ink spraying over a wide cone in front of him, the next point flashing green. Misha didn't even slow down, allowing Corlu to perform what amounted to a drive-by on the Krak-on Roller. What Corlu didn't notice was the boy beneath them, smirking behind his mask as he rose up, setting his sights on Corlu and pulling the trigger. She had no time to react, and was splatted, the force of the explosion knocking Misha sideways. He turned, the boy paling as he emptied his tank into the Heavy to no apparent effect. He was swiftly dispatched by a burst from Splasha. Misha grin grew as he glanced at the spawning pad, the entire enemy team looking panicked and nervous as they charged forward again. Corlu landed on his shoulder, fierce determination clear on her face.

"Come. We finish this."

He went to run forward, cringing as pain seared through his upper back for several seconds before vanishing. Frowning, he looked around before focussing on the objective.

"So, how long till we're live?"

"Callie. You asked this less than a minute ago. We still have an hour."

"Ugh, but I'm booooooooored! And all the sweets are gone!"

"A proper breakfast helps."

"Mine was proper!"

"Oh? Do tell."

"Marshmallow pieces."

"The key word was proper, Callie."

"Oh really? And what would you call prop-"

"Shhh!"

"Don't you shush me Marie!"

"No really, listen."

She held a hand to her ear, before turning to the window. Misha was stood outside, tapping on the glass. Marie smiled and waved at him before realising he was holding up a sign.

 _Need talk._

Marie pointed to the door. Moments later, Misha was inside, the sisters looking questioningly at Corlu. The smaller girl hid her face behind her tentacles.

"Who's the girl?" Callie asked.

"Under my protection."

"From what?"

"From Octoling."

Callie snorted.

"Come on, you don't actually believe..." She trailed off when she saw thunderous expression on Misha's face. "Never mind."

"Hey, what's your name?"

Marie extended a hand up to Corlu, who briefly peeked out from behind her tentacles to shake her hand before turning away, muttering incomprehensibly.

"Is Corlu." Misha said.

"Well it's nice to meet you, Corlu."

The girl whimpered slightly. Callie smiled before turning to Misha.

"What brings you here?"

"Fights are too easy for me."

Callie and Marie were silent for a few seconds before the latter spoke up.

"Well, the only way we could make it more difficult is if we made you an objective. But there's only one of you, so you could only take part in one match at a time, instead of having two simultaneous matches in different places. We'd also need to know how much damage you can take."

"Do that now."

"Are you sure? It'll be painful."

"Misha can take it."

"If you say so."

Opening a cupboard, Marie took out the Eris Charger. Misha noticed that it looked different. The barrel was shorter and tapered off, a small golden apple ornament hanging from it. A compressor was attached to the chassis in front of the ink tank.

"Weapon is different."

Marie cracked a smile.

"I thought you'd notice. In short, I redesigned the old one and made it so it charges really fast and has a high range, but less power. The Eris 2.0 is far superior to the original. Stand here, please."

Corlu jumped from Misha's shoulder as he took his position and Marie took aim, a spawning pad activating behind him. Marie fired, the green-white shot causing Misha to stagger. She fired again, the rifle bucking slightly, a small gold ornament swinging from the barrel. After fifteen shots, Misha keeled over and disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing on the spawning pad, coughing to remove the ink from his throat.

"Fifteen shots. That's about... Eight hundred and fifty five damage in total before you get dragged back to your pad." She noticed the ink he was coughing up. "Wow, I guess you actually drown before being respawned."

"Is perk of working with Medic."

"They sound like a good person, to be making you so resilient."

"He took out heart and replaced it while still conscious."

Marie paled. Callie paled. Corlu remained blissfully unaware of the conversation that just took place, listening to her music contentedly.

"...right." Marie started. "Well, now we just have to make you an objective somehow. Any ideas?"

"Da. Is simple. Two teams vs me. Winners are team who get most kill shots on me."

"If there's going to be two teams, I'd have to talk Sheldon into making you a shield of some kind, because damage can build up fast out there, as you've no doubt discovered."

"Oh, he could carry a shield like the Rainmaker!" Callie exclaimed.

"Yeah, that could work. Misha, you need to give this a name so it can be-"

"Juggernaut. That is name."

"Alright then. I'll see if I can get that pushed through for the Ranked Battles."

"Thank you."

As Misha turned to leave, he was driven to his knees by the same intense pain from before, only this time it had increased tenfold. He groaned, falling forward onto one hand, the other pressed against his head. He could hear the sisters trying to talk to him, their forms swimming around the edge of his vision while Corlu was stood directly in front of him, panic written across her face. He tried to force himself upwards, only for the pain to increase again, laying him out flat and dropping him into unconsciousness.

"Scout, water, now! Doc, shut that thing off!"

Dell detonated his auxiliary power lines as Medic deactivated the main cables, smoke pouring from the machinery, thickening the air. A dreadful heat billowed from the exit, and Dell was quick to dump the contents of the bucket retrieved by Scout onto it, the water hissing and evaporating upon contact with the metal. Several buckets later, the chassis cracked, the smoke beginning to fade as windows and doors were propped open. Dell let out a deep sigh, wiping his brow with the back of his hand before sitting down heavily.

"Damn it, we almost had something then. I saw it, felt it! There was displacement of the air!"

"Eh, better luck next time, hard hat."

"But the trial worked perfectly! It pulled the bread back through! Now I'll need to start again. Damn it!"

He kicked the sundered chassis, the arms spinning slightly on their joint. He lay back, sitting back up and turning around when he heard the unmistakable sound of Spy decloaking. The Frenchman was holding several components, all of which he held out to Dell.

"Two heat sinks, four pipe conduits, one sealed canister of liquid nitrogen. I did all I could."

"Thanks, Spy. You know you didn't have to be here, right?"

"Heavy is my teammate too. I want him back just as much as you do. Is that all?"

"Yeah, that's all. Thanks for your help."

"Not a problem."

The Frenchman vanished, and Medic sat down next to Dell.

"The chassis needs better cooling. The containment is good, but the vital parts melts before we could pull Heavy back. Heavy must need much more energy to be safely teleported."

"I guess so." Dell stood up, removing his glove and flexing his robotic hand. "Well, no use in standing around. Let's rebuild it."

"Misha, can you hear me?"

"He moved!"

"Misha?"

"He's fine, he's waking up."

"Misha!"

Misha groaned, pushing himself onto his back and breathing heavily. He sat up, looking around, seeing that he was still in the studio. The sisters and Corlu stood around him, concern written into their faces. Outside, another crowd of Inklings had formed.

"What happened?" Misha asked.

"Well... You collapsed." Marie replied. "And... Well. See for yourself."

Marie pulled a mirror out of her cupboard and threw it to Misha. He caught it, frowning when he saw the black markings on his face, scowling when it didn't come off. He also felt a weight on his back. Reaching around, he realised that three pairs of tentacles had sprouted from his back, each one at least as long as his arm.

"Tell Heavy is joke."

The sisters shared a look.

"It's not a joke."

"Heavy hates magic." He said, letting out a deep sigh.

Callie walked around Misha, looking closely at his tentacles, inspecting the red flesh and the yellow tips.

"Looks like you've become like an Inkling."

Taking one of the appendages in his hands, Misha felt the muscle underneath the red and white flesh, trying to flex them. He managed to make them twitch slightly.

"Misha, try turning into a squid."

"I don't know."

"Honestly, it's easy. Put a load of ink on the floor, that'll help."

Misha did as instructed, Corlu, Callie and Marie stepping back so as to not get caught in it. Callie nodded.

"Good. Now, the best teacher is instinct, so..."

Misha didn't even see Callie move before she was looming over him, Tethys Roller in hand. Roaring in surprise, Misha dived sideways, melting into the ink as he did so, only his eyes and the six tentacles from his back visible. They arranged themselves in front of him defensively. Corlu giggled.

"There you go. One freakishly oversized squid."

Misha pulled himself back together, standing up shakily. It took almost a second before he could straighten up and move.

"Good. Now just practice transforming between the two."

Misha's face contorted in concentration before he turned red and began to melt, slower than when he desperately avoided Callie's attack. This time, a lot of his body was left visible, his eyes just above the floor.

"Getting better. You'll just have to practice to make the change quicker."

Misha rumbled slightly before realising he had no proper mouth. He reformed himself.

"Is... Strange." He inhaled deeply. "Come Corlu, we go home."

The sisters watched the pair leave, the door swinging shut behind them. Marie turned to Callie.

"They said an Octoling. Gramps was right!"

"Then we can let Gramps deal with it. It's not our problem at the moment."

"It is totally our problem!" Marie yelled. "We can't just let this Octoling run free! What if more come?"

"I don't know. We could tell Gramps..."

"I bet he already knows. He's always hanging around that Octo Valley."

"We may have to go back too."

"Ugh, let's just see how this plays out."

-Shore-

Upon arriving on the shore, Misha didn't even look at his cave home, instead walking over to the place where he had appeared the week before, searching for the glassy shards that had formed in the heat of his arrival. He began to scoop the sand away, motioning for Corlu to do the same. As the sand came away, Misha soon felt a cold metal beneath his fingers. Quickly clearing the dust, he stood up and inspected the construct buried in the sand.

A spawning plate.

"Makes sense. Must have brought Misha here."

Turning around, Misha caught a glimpse of a figure closing the door to his home. He grabbed Corlu and forced her downwards onto her front, doing the same himself. When the figure didn't immediately emerge, he took out Splasha and approached slowly, trying to remember the time Spy had taught him to move silently. He came upon the door, and threw it open, spraying a line of ink in front of him to prevent the Octoling inside from escaping. She looked at him from behind large goggles, a grimace on her face.

"Fool!"

"I have question. You will answer." He revved up Splasha. "Are you one who hurt Corlu?"

"Doc, I've run a few more tests. I think I've found the problem."

"Well? Out with it!"

"Whenever we try to teleport him in, we can't contain the energy and the chassis melts, right?"

"So?"

"I ran the diagnostics, and something is dragging him away. My teleporter works by breaking someone into atoms, suspending them, and reassembling them a the other end. But in this case, something on Heavy's end is interfering. Something is keeping him together against the force of the teleporter and as a result, every time I try to warp him, the teleporter has to compensate and overpower this other device in order to create a stable link that his atoms can pass through. But the problem is that it takes too much energy to do so, which throws out a lot of heat, melting the chassis before the link can be sustained."

"So... More heat sinks?"

"Hah, they'll help, but we'll need more. A lot more, according to these graphs."

Dell handed over a sheaf of papers, Medic leading through them and considering the data on each page. His expression fell with each successive page.

"These readings... So much energy... We can never contain or conduct something like this!"

"We can't, no. But... We were able to send the bread there, remember? Given, it came back toasted, but that was done before it was pulled back..."

"How does that help?"

Dell removed his hat.

"We can send him a message. Get him to destroy what's holding him there so we can pull him back."

"Engineer, the energy involved cindered the bread. What can we send that can hold a message?"

"The teleport didn't destroy the bread. But, the energy will definitely destroy paper, so we need something more robust. A slab of rock should keep its shape. I need a chisel."


	4. Interrogation

_It's a repeat mission. Go back to the shore and raid the home of the alien. No-one will be there. In and out with no resistance. They won't even know you were there. It all looks good on paper._

The Octoling glared at Misha, who glared back with barely-contained fury. Splasha's barrels continued to spin, ready to open fire on the Octoling should she try to escape. Deciding that her armour wasn't good enough to withstand fire from the weapon aimed at her, she looked at her own Octoshot in resignation before throwing it down.

"I ask again. Are you one who hurt Corlu?"

"Corlu is the girl?"

"Yes."

"In that case, yes. I am the one who tortured her."

"You have made Heavy angry. Is not good place to be."

"You think one Octoling going down is going to change anything?"

"Heavy is not stupid. I know what war is. I have been fighting continuous war for years."

There was truth in the statement, but that was years ago, yet his fierce expression and tone seemed to unsettle the Octoling.

"You have given Corlu scars."

"She's an Inkling. Her kind doesn't get scars."

"Mental scars. Heavy has them too. Do you?"

Opening one of the boxes in the cave, he took out several lengths of rope. Corlu took aim at the Octoling while Misha tied her to a chair, spraying the ground around the chair to stop the Octoling from simply shifting form to escape. She may as well have been sat on a table, given the chair had been designed with Misha in mind, not the much-smaller Inklings and Octolings. Misha looked out of the cave before lifting the chair and walking outside, placing it on an outcrop. The Octoling noted with some worry that the outcrop was below the high tide mark. Misha retreated to above the high tide mark.

"Why did you hurt Corlu?"

"Now, it's funny, because I thought we Octarians were the monsters here."

"Tell me."

"But now I see that you're a monster. Putting me to death by rising water."

"What are Octolings planning?"

"Hah! Wouldn't you like to know."

Her smirk faded when a wave broke on the rocks, covering her in spray. Her flesh crawled.

"Octoling does not have much time before tide rises."

Looking down, she saw that the water was already rising up the legs of the chair.

"Corlu, go get sisters." He leaned down and whispered: "Tell them Misha sent you."

Corlu shifted form before launching, arcing towards the city. Heavy turned back to the Octoling, who just stared back at him from behind her goggles.

"What is name?"

"Fine, since it doesn't look like I'm going anywhere, my name is Atra. Not that it means anything to you."

"I would speak carefully. I have seen what water does."

As if to illustrate his point, another wave broke on the rocks, the spray burning the Octoling. Three squid landed behind Misha, Corlu immediately climbing into his shoulder while the Squid Sisters reformed, Callie immediately locking eyes with the Octoling.

"Oh... I wish I'd brought my Roller now..."

"Heavy." Marie said. "Bring her over before the water gets too high."

Said water was just up to the Atra's feet, the occasional swell lapping over the top of her boots. She moaned in pain each time, fuchsia ink spilling into the water. Shrugging, Misha stepped into the water, his legs burning as he did so. Yelping, he stepped back, heading into his cave and returning with a Sandvich before wading out again, throwing the chair to the shore. As he walked back, he felt his legs about to give out, and he bit down on the Sandvich, its healing properties restoring his legs enough to allow him to reach the shore.

"That is a pain."

Corlu kept her Splattershot trained on Atra while Misha recovered. Callie approached, arms folded across her chest.

"Why did you come?"

"Oh you know. The usual."

"What's 'the usual'?"

Atra's brows raised above her mask.

"Wow, I know he said you were slow, but I thought you'd have figured it of by now."

"Figured out what? Your grand plan? Your little operation's over."

"Pretty much. I mean, personally, my mission's failed. I'm tied to a chair, of course. But..."

"Oh no... The city..."

Marie pointed towards Inkopolis. Following her finger, Misha could just about see a black speck hovering around the tower, green energy unfolding from the craft and closing around the Great Zapfish, yanking it from the tower, the discharge from the Zapfish arcing between it and the tower. They vanished into the distance. Atra laughed behind them.

"Hah! The scrolls said you were hedonists, not caring for anything but yourself and battling. I wasn't expecting you to completely miss the enormous saucer nicking your power source, or the others making off with the smaller Zapfish too." She turned towards Misha. "And we certainly weren't expecting you, you enormous oaf. What are you, some sort of whale with all that blubber?"

"What Heavy is is of no concern to you."

"Ooh, third person. You're not from around here. Not even the jellyfish refer to themselves like that. Well then Heavy, whatever you are, you are powerless to stop what's coming. A ball of fat like you doesn't stand a chance against-"

Calmly, very calmly, Misha approached Atra. He leaned in towards her, putting his face right up to hers.

"You hurt someone I liked. Big mistake."

"Wait!"

He placed a massive finger on her head and pushed her backwards, the chair rocking back on its legs and tipping over the edge. Callie and Marie caught the legs and pulled, the chair settling again.

"If we take her into Inkopolis, we can show the city that they are real." Callie said.

"Oh, you can't let an Octoling die in peace, can you? What am I, a freak show?"

Misha went into his cave, returning with a spiked knuckleduster. He punched Atra in the gut, watching her attempt to fold up in pain. He leaned in again, this time removing her mask. He saw the fear and pain in her emerald eyes, as well as a deep-burning anger.

"I could do much worse. So much worse."

He picked up the chair, beginning the walk into Inkopolis, as the sisters and Corlu trailed behind him.

"Hold onto your tentacles..."

"It's Inkopolis news time!"

"We have a warning for the city!"

"Pay attention!"

"Some of you may have noticed that the Great Zapfish is missing, and that smaller Zapfish around the city are also gone."

"Well, we have one of the perpetrators!"

The lights switched on in the studio, illuminating the chair guarded by Misha and Corlu. On the chair, still bound, was Atra. She stared at the camera with a board expression.

"This is Atra." Marie explained. "She is the one who attacked a friend of ours, and has supposedly stolen some of the Zapfish personally."

Atra raised her middle fingers at the camera and Corlu blushed deeply.

 _A friend of the Squid Sisters?_

"Some of you may have bore witness to a flying saucer making off with the Great Zapfish, and it's unknown at the moment what will be done about this." Callie said.

"Keep an eye out and report any Octolings you see. You know what damage they can cause."

The light went off and was quickly replaced by a backdrop with a screen.

"Here comes the stage news!"

Behind the backdrop, Atra groaned.

"A freak show then. An Octoling and the giant. How come they let you just walk around?"

"Because Heavy doesn't torture people." Corlu retorted.

Atra frowned. She hasn't been expecting such a sharp answer from the girl. Narrowing her eyes, she hissed and jerked her head forwards, causing Corlu to move slightly further behind Misha. Smirking, Atra dropped her gaze. They sat in silence for a few moments before the sisters walked back into the room. Callie pointed to the Octoling.

"We know what we're going to do with you. Misha, bring her and follow us."

Lifting the chair again, he and Corlu followed the sisters out to the back of the building.

"Have either of you heard of Octo Valley?" Marie asked. She was met with questioning expressions. "Right, basically, it houses a load of kettles that lead to Octospheres, subterranean biodomes where the Octolings live. There's an entrance to the valley in the plaza, but there'll be a riot if we step outside. So we have another entrance that we use."

"Give Misha time to put Octoling at station. Then we go."

"No need, we have that sorted too."

They stepped into a basement beneath the studio, a grate covering a hole in the floor. Callie stepped over it.

"Just turn into a squid, alright?"

She did so, flowing through the grate like it was nothing and disappearing into the hole. Corlu went next. Misha stepped onto the grate next, beginning to shift. He found himself unable to enter, the bars stopping him from moving through. Marie raised an eyebrow.

"Now this is unexpected."

She approached the hole, shifting her arm through it before pulling back. Realisation dawned in her eyes.

"Oh, Misha. Relax your fingers for a second."

He did so, and Marie took one and attempted to bend it backwards, the bones inside stopping her. She smirked.

"Well that explains why you can take so much punishment. You're not going anywhere with a bone structure. Inklings don't have bones, which means we can just flow around bars and stuff." She twisted her arm backwards to demonstrate. "Do you think you'll be able to dissociate your bones when shifting and reform them after?"

"No."

"It's only tempor-"

"No."

Behind them, Atra burst out laughing.

"Hah! Definitely a whale! Blubber _and_ bones!"

Misha walked over and lifted Atra and the chair she was sat on by pulling upwards on her tentacles. Marie took a sharp intake of breath and a blush burned across Atra's face, accompanied by an involuntary moan, both soon fading as she began screaming when Misha tightened his grip.

"Shut up." Heavy said, before dropping her. Atra shuddered. Marie got his attention.

"Misha, just, come over here a sec." He did so, leaning down so Marie could whisper into his ear. "Social norms here, don't go round touching other people's tentacles."

"Why?"

Marie grabbed the closest of Misha's tentacles. Every muscle in his back tensed up.

"That's why."

"What is taking you two so... Long..."

Misha and Marie's head shot around, glaring at Callie, who had emerged from the hole. Marie dropped the tentacle and turned away, her face burning crimson. Callie burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter.

"Oh my~! Someone's getting a bit touchy-feely! Ha! Lewd!"

Marie refused to turn around while Misha walked over to the chair and untied Atra.

"Run, and I kill you."

Rolling her eyes, she approached the pit, Callie still attempting to hold back her laughter even as she swam away. Once Atra had moved away, Misha lifted the grate and swam inside, Marie following once he dropped the grate again.

-Workshop-

In the maze of cables that now constituted Dell's workshop, the man himself was sat beside the teleporter, a slab of stone at his feet. In his left hand, he held a chisel. A hammer fell onto it repeatedly, the metallic sound reverberating through the workshop. Every now and then, he stopped, blowing the dust away and wiping his brow before bringing the hammer down again, letters slowly taking shape on the rock. The teleporter buzzed with energy; he had been charging it up, preparing it to send a body rather than receive one. Visually, there had been no changes made to the machine. However, on the inside, all the wires had been crossed, the algorithms reversed. It was more complicated than that, but even Dell was unsure as to how the teleporter had sent Heavy beyond their now he was planning on doing it again.

Purposefully.

The Administrator would not be pleased.

Over his hammer blows, the Engineer heard the door open and close, several pairs of footsteps reaching his ears. As he finished sculpting the final letter, Medic tapped him on the shoulder.

"Is it ready?"

"Yeah."

He stood aside, allowing Medic to read the slab.

 _Heavy,_

 _We've been trying to pull you back to the exit. Something is keeping you there. Destroy it._

 _Engie._

"Efficient. Send it."

"Alrighty then. Pyro!"

The masked being stepped forward. Dell lifted the slab and handed it over.

"You're the most heat proof person here. I don't want to risk damaging the pad by putting the stone on there, so your job is to throw it into the field when it forms. You should be able to see it. Got it?"

He received a string of unintelligible vocalisations in reply.

"Yeah, it's safe enough. Spent all night putting dampers on it. You'll be fine."

Another string of vocalisations. Dell walked over to the large switch on the wall, and pulled. The lights immediately switched off, the power redirected into the massive pad. Its limbs began to turn, a platform of hard light beginning to form. A low whine filled the air, growing higher and louder every second. Sparks began arcing between the pad and chassis. Medic turned away as Dell pulled his goggles down, shielding his eyes from the building glow. He watched as a bubble began forming above the pad, small pulses of energy propagating outwards from it as it grew, only to be caught by the chassis and fed back into the machine, causing the bubble to rapidly grow. When it was large enough to stand in, Dell shouted to Pyro.

"Now! Throw it into the field!"

Pyro began to walk forward, their overalls protecting them from the heat being thrown out by the device. Dell watched them go, silently praying that his calculations were cracked. He whipped his head around when the door was kicked open, Scout running in.

"Engie! We have a problem!"

"What?"

Scout held out a photo. Dell's face fell when he saw that it was Pyro, dead on the floor with a bullet through their head. As he realised what that meant, he heard the unmistakeable sound of a Spycicle melting, the ice spreading over the now-undisguised BLU Spy safely inside the displacement bubble.

"Hah!" A gas mask landed near Dell. "You suck! You didn't even notice!"

Thinking fast, Dell took one of the remaining slabs of rock, one small enough to throw, and began hammering at it, chipping away with increasing panic as the whine became deafening. Dropping his hammer and chisel, he picked up the slab, turned, and hurled it into the bubble as the Spy vanished in a blinding burst of light.

-Octo Valley-

"I am not getting in there."

"You're not going anywhere else either."

Misha picked Atra up and pressed her against the grate leading into the globe.

"You are _not_ putting me in a freaking snow globe!"

"Octoling is going in globe." Misha said, pushing harder.

Atra struggled against him, growling in disgust. Misha growled back, leaning more and more of his weight into her, the metal grate leading into the globe beginning to cut into her face. Screaming in frustration, she turned and sunk her fangs into Misha's arm. He roared in pain and surprised, jerking his hand away with Atra still attached. He took hold of her in his other hand and slammed her into the grate. She shifted to avoid being crushed, landing face-first at the bottom of the globe. She scowled as Misha replaced the glass over the grate, three distinct holes in his arm. The sisters and Corlu looked at him with worry.

"Is only bite." He reassured them. "Heavy gets shot often."

While they were distracted, Atra discreetly wiped blue vitriol away from the corner of her mouth, grinning to herself. She dropped the smile when Captain Cuttlefish leaned in and inspected her through the glass.

"Nice job, girls. Oh, and you, Heavy. This one won't be going anywhere."

The captain walked away, mumbling to himself under his breath. Callie rolled her eyes.

"Don't mind him. He's like that all the time. Now then, there are kettles all over the place here. Pick one and get started. We're fairly sure the stolen Zapfish are in there. Isn't that right?" She tapped on Atra's prison and got a curt sigh in response. "First kettle's just over there."

She began walking towards the device, roller across her shoulder, but stopped when an enormous explosion caused her to duck instinctively, as did everyone else nearby. She turned, alarm in her eyes.

"What was that?"

"It sounded like it came from the city!"

Misha glared at Atra, who just shrugged. The sisters super jumped, a trail of ink leading towards Inkopolis. Corlu shrugged at Misha before following them. He went last, focusing on where he wanted to end up, visualising the distance in his head. He took off, flying across the open water between the valley and city before landing heavily in a disaster.

The windows in the plaza had all shattered, powdered glass covering the floor as many Inklings staggered around, clearly disorientated and trying to clear the ringing in their ears. Many more were sat down, tending to injuries they had sustained after being blown over by the force of the blast. The injuries and scorch marks concerned Misha, but nothing terrified him more than what else he could see.

"Oh, this is bad."

In the centre of the plaza stood an icy statue, standing solid in defiance of the apparent heat damage surrounding it. It was an Inkling, an expression of fear and pain frozen on her face, her arms reaching behind her to an unseen assailant. A disgustingly neat puncture wound in her back was all the evidence Misha needed- the two slabs only added to his dread. After reading the message on the first, he turned the second one over to reveal a much messier message, the letters formed haphazardly with no care for equal sizing. One terrible word glared back at him.

"Heavy?" Marie asked. "Heavy, what is it?"

He let out a deep sigh before turning. Marie's expression fell when she saw the anger on Misha's face.

"We have serious problem."

He turned the stone in his hand, showing Marie the warning.

SPY


	5. Coercion

**I have no idea what came over me. This chapter sort of just wrote itself. To shed light on Jawisian's review, a merc's gotta do what they're paid to do.**

"Spy? What does it mean, 'Spy'?"

"It means we have murderous assassin who can turn invisible on the loose." Misha looked at the petrified Inkling again. "He can also disguise himself as anyone."

He sighed, covering his face with a hand. Marie moved towards the statue while Callie stayed back, touching its surface and snatching her hand away when it caused her to burn.

"She's been turned to ice! How?"

"Spy has weapon called Spycicle. Turns target to ice so fast, no time for scream." He turned to the crowd that had gathered and raised his voice. "What colour was she?"

"Purple!" A faint voice from the crowd shouted.

Misha began to change colour, his tentacles becoming less red and more blue, the pigmentation settling between the two at purple. He spun up Splasha and covered a small section of ground with ink before picking up the statue and lowering her in. The statue bobbed on the surface for a few seconds before inky veins spread beneath it, slowly covering the entirety of the girl's body and face. The colour spread, the icy blue almost completely absent before the ice shattered, the noise immediately followed by a scream as the Inkling felt the puncture wound in her back. Her legs gave out, and she flopped into the puddle, a ghostly squid emerging from her body. Moments later, she reappeared on what was left of the spawn pad, the circuitry miraculously still intact despite the face of it being cracked. The girl instantly broke down crying, falling onto her knees and then her side, her arms pulling her knees in. Several Inklings went to her side, talking to her, reassuring her. One lifted her arm over his shoulders and began to carry her away. Misha ran after them momentarily.

"Excuse me! Who did this?"

The boy turned, clear distrust in his eyes. The girl spoke.

"Tall man in a b-blue suit..."

Misha nodded and turned away, approaching the sisters again. Marie was covering her mouth with a hand, looking as if she may throw up.

"This is awful. The ice stops them from respawning."

"At least we know that ink can recover them."

Marie noticed Misha approaching. She tilted her head towards the studio.

"News flash, now. You're going to explain to the population exactly what we're dealing with."

* * *

Misha sat between the Squid Sisters as the studio was prepared. An artist had produced a rough drawing of the Spy, and Misha had to admit that it was pretty good likeness. That image was attached to the wall behind them, ready to be lit up once the cue was given. The Anemone behind the camera counted down, and the lights went up.

"News flash!"

"Listen up everyone, this one is important!"

The sisters gestured to Misha, who pulled himself to his feet. The image behind him was lit up, showing the thin, suited man to Inkopolis.

"This is Spy. He is old enemy of Heavy. He is very dangerous." He pulled down the portrait, revealing quick sketches of the Spy's equipment that Misha had drawn himself. "He is armed with revolver and knife. The knife turns people into ice."

"This stops them from respawning, so if you run into a statue of someone and you know their colour, submerge them in ink." Marie interrupted.

"Spy can also turn invisible using a watch." Misha continued. "Assume worst, so think he could be anywhere at any time. His last trick is disguise. He could be anyone. Do not panic- remember Spy is only deadly from behind. He is dirty coward who will run from fight."

Misha was about to continue, but was stopped when a watery explosion, followed by something wet splattering across his back and head caused him to turn, just in time. Behind him, Marie's ghost was disappearing out the window, anger etched into her ethereal eyes. In front of him, holding a smoking Ambassador in one hand and a Spycicle currently embedded in Misha's arm in the other, stood the Spy, malicious glee in his eyes.

 _"Bonjour, mon amie."_

He took aim at Misha's head. As he did so, Misha ordered his tentacles into action, and he shifted, a look of profound surprise on Spy's face as the enormous man became a squid. The Spy then retreated when a hail of blows was delivered by the tentacles, turning and running, only to have his feet pulled out from underneath him. His head bounced off the floor, dazing him, and seconds later, Misha was on top of him, pulling back for a punch, only for a bullet to tear through his head, but not kill him.

 _Oh, they shouldn't be seeing this._

Knowing he could only take a few more hits, he punched the Frenchman, but was shot in the gut, the force pushing him away just enough for the Spy to scramble away, lapsing out of the visible spectrum, Misha catching a flash of gold before the Spy vanished completely.

 _Worst case scenario- infinite invisibility._

Turning away from the camera, Misha pulled a mangled Sandvich from his pocket, the regenerative foodstuff regrowing flesh and knitting the bone back together. Seconds later, Marie kicked the door in, sighting out the room. She paled when she saw the last of Misha's injury repair itself before her expression hardened.

"Where's Callie?"

"I don't know."

-Octo Valley-

When Callie awoke, she quickly realised two things.

One: there was a raised bruise on the back of her head that hurt like hell.

Two: she was inside a snow globe.

"Ugh. Great."

Despite knowing it was futile, she placed her hands on the smooth glass, trying to climb up the inside to reach the lid at the top of the sphere. She could not. After slipping and falling down several times, she resigned herself to her imprisonment and sat cross-legged at the bottom of the sphere, a look of sheer boredom on her face. Her expression brightened when she saw she was in Octo Valley, outside of Cuttlefish's shack.

 _He'll step outside and find me. No doubting that._

Callie's expression soured again when Atra stepped into her field of view, the Spy stood behind her, his previously immaculate suit marred with dirt and grime, as if he had to crawl through several small spaces to get to where he was now. Suddenly, Atra was talking. Callie couldn't hear what she was saying, and she couldn't lip read. She shrugged. Atra rolled her eyes opened the top of the globe, sitting on the rim of the hole with her Octoshot trained on the sister.

"So, enjoying your new home?"

"You dumped me in your prison. How original."

"And utterly cathartic. Delicious. Tell me, has your pet whale become compliant yet?"

"No."

"Oh, give it time and he will. I injected him with enough venom."

"Venom? What are you talking about?"

Atra threw back her head and laughed for a moment.

"Wow! I said my name didn't mean anything. None of you will have heard of little old Atra, infiltrator extraordinaire. You don't know it, but we've been watching this whole time."

She cracked a grin, allowing blue venom to drip from her mouth.

"Spy only got here this morning."

"True..." Atra nodded in agreement. "But it's clear he has the experience and equipment to join the Blue Ring."

Callie noticed movement at the edge of her vision, and her heart sank when a group of Octolings appeared around her, active camouflage wearing off, revealing their true numbers. Each and every one of them had a blue ring somewhere on their uniform. She counted eleven blue Octolings, plus the Spy and Atra.

 _Thirteen in total. Damn._

"How did you even get out of this globe?" Callie demanded.

"Oh, the Spy here. We have common interests. And he knows Morse code, which is useful."

"Morse?"

"It helps to be a historian."

Callie looked back at Atra, who was staring back with mirth in her eyes.

"What makes you think I won't just get a force together and destroy you when my friends find me?"

"Oh, this one's sharp! So glad you asked." Atra dropped into the globe. _"Because it's all part of the plan."_

She darted forward, Callie holding her at bay by grabbing both of her arms. Atra frowned at the display of strength.

"Oh yeah, you use a damn Roller."

Quickly twisting, Atra dropped to one knee and pulled Callie over her, the sister overbalancing and landing on her back. Wasting no more time, Atra delivered a swift kick to the head before she leaned forward, biting into Callie's neck, wiping the blue away from the corner of her mouth as she finished. She left the sister lying down and climbed out of the globe with the help of one of her operatives. She stood next to the Frenchman, observing as Callie sat up, glaring at Atra while holding a hand to her neck. She pulled herself to her feet, leaning heavily on the glass.

"I am going to tell them everything."

Atra pulled a false expression of distress.

"Oh no... Our plan's ruined..." She mocked, waving her hands in fake anguish. "No, we have a thing for that. And once the poison takes hold, it won't be a problem. Seida! Light show." She turned to Callie. "Let's play some mind games, shall we?"

The air shimmered as the strangest creature Callie had ever seen became visible. They were considerably taller than her, around the height of the Spy, and wore a black longcoat. His skin was extremely pale with a blue tinge to it that set Callie on edge. His eyes were the strangest though- jet black with a single ring of blue for an iris. Fleshy frills hung from his jawline. Callie also noticed his webbed fingers.

"What the hell are you?"

"Oh, good question, I knew you were sharp. The truth is, even we don't know. He's- and he assures he's male- not an Inkling or an Octoling. He can't shift form, and he can't operate any sort of Ink weaponry." Atra explained. "However, what he can do is very unique and we find it very useful. In fact, I probably didn't even need to use my venom, given what he's about to do."

At the edge of Callie's vision, Seida opened the top of his coat and pulsed with colour, drawing her attention. She realised with awful dread what was happening, and what Seida was, but at that point it was too late. She was already helplessly tracing the shifting patterns in his flesh, unable to tear her eyes away.

"No, please..."

"It's too late now!" Atra taunted.

"Please don't do this... I don't want to..."

"Whether you want to or not is beyond the point."

"No... I..."

Callie closed her eyes, humming to herself, trying to distract herself from the burning temptation to look at Seida, to figure out the patterns pulsing across him. Atra's eyes narrowed.

"We're not having that."

She jumped into the globe, facing away from Seida but forcing Callie's head in that direction before reaching around and pulling one of her eyes open.

"No! Please! I want to be me..."

"Aww, how sad."

Tears spilled over Atra's fingers and down Callie's face.

"No... I'm... Cal... Ca..."

The Octoling maintained her hold until Callie slumped forward. She released her, Callie's body lying limp on the glass of the globe, mouth agape and eyes still following Seida's patterns. Atra left the globe and she stood in front of the globe, taking care not to stand at an angle where she may be able to see his reflection. When waving an arm in front of Callie garnered no response, she gestured to Seida, who approached and began talking with an unsettling, hoarse whisper.

"You have no memory of what happened here."

"I have no memory of what happened here."

"You have no memory of Seida."

"I have no memory of Seida."

"You will obey your Blue Ring superiors."

"I will obey my Blue Ring superiors."

"You will obey us when you hear Azure Override."

"I will obey you when I hear Azure Override."

"That's enough, Seida." Atra interrupted. Seida grinned, closing his coat again before giving one last command.

"Sleep."

Callie's eyes closed and she slid down the globe.

"Nice touch with the 'Superiors' thing."

Seida shrugged before walking away, camouflaging himself out of sight. Atra'a eyes widened as she remembered something. Quickly signalling a Blue Ring operative, she climbed into the globe again and jammed a small piece of technology into Callie's ear.

"Can't have you running off without contact now, can we?" She allowed herself to be pulled out of the globe. "Time to disappear."

Atra replaced the glass and moved away with the operative, her camouflage beginning to assert itself.

"Mademoiselle Atra, what does the venom actually do?"

"Would you like to find out?" She flashed the Spy a vitriolic grin. He cringed.

 _"Non, mercí."_

"No, it's fine. Basically, it's tailor-made to affect those hedonistic little brains of theirs. While Seida forces them into working with us, the venom causes the brain to release endorphins. It makes them want to work for us, a bit like a drug addiction. Took me about a year to get the composition right."

"I see. Clever."

"It is, isn't it? Now let's go."

Atra disappeared from sight, and the Spy vanished too, clouds of smoke billowing off him as he vanished. Moments later, Corlu, Misha and Marie emerged from the drain.

"Gramps! Where are you? We have an emergency!"

A muffled voice from inside the shack caught her attention.

"In here! Help!"

The sister kicked the door open, Eris Charger pointed into the room. She lowered the weapon, placing it on the ground as she hurried over to the chair to which Captain Cuttlefish had been tied, picking at the knots.

"Who did this to you?"

"I don't know! He was too fast. He was very tall though."

Misha grunted.

"Sounds like Spy."

"Callie's missing."

"Come again?"

"Callie is missing. We reckon the Spy took her."

"Oh dear... This is a mess... Come on! Start searching!"

"No need!" Corlu shouted from outside. "She's here!"

Marie burst from the shack, and Corlu merely pointed towards the globe. Marie quickly got on top, removing the glass lid and jumping inside, trying to rouse her cousin.

"Callie. Callie, hey, come on, wake up. Callie." Marie shook Callie's shoulders. "Come on, wake up, Callie, it's time for work..." Frowning, she thought for a second before whispering in her ear. "I made s'mores!"

The effect was instantaneous. Callie's eyes shot open, and she tried to push herself up, wincing when she felt the pain in her head.

"S'mores? Where?"

Marie breathed out a sigh of relief before helping Callie to her feet, giving the just-awakened Inkling a few seconds to steady herself before she climbed out of the sphere, helping Callie out after. The dark sister sat on the grass and lay down, massaging her temples with her fingers.

"I have got the _worst_ headache right now."

"You've taken a hit to the head, by the looks of it. Come on, let's get you back home."

* * *

Later on, the Sisters, Corlu and Misha were sat around a table inside a luxury apartment in Flounder Heights. Callie had an ice pack pressed to her head in one hand and a hot chocolate held in the other. Marie sipped her coffee. Corlu was slowly drinking from a glass of orange juice, while Misha was sat back, eating a Sandvich. Callie looked at it hungrily.

"How good are those sandwiches, anyway? You seem to eat them all the time."

Misha grinned.

"Misha is very good Sandvich chef. So good they heal you. Here."

He tore a piece off and handed it to Callie, who inspected the several fillings before placing it in her mouth, unsure as to what to make of the flavour, but gasping when she felt the swelling on her head deflate and the pain disappear.

"You have got to teach me how to do that."

"Nyet. Is secret."

Callie pouted. Misha glared. Marie and Corlu glanced at each other bemusedly. Callie winced again.

"Ouch, well, as good as they are, they don't do anything for a headache. I'm going for a walk."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Callie? I mean, you did just get kidnapped."

"I'll be fine. And this time, I'll just super jump back here, okay?"

"I still don't think it's a good idea."

"Well, whatever."

Callie stood up and walked out of the apartment, making sure to close and lock the door behind her before making her way down to the ground floor. She stepped outside, the fresh air doing little to soothe her headache, much to her disappointment. Regardless, she headed off into the night, her breath condensing in front of her. She had always loved the night sky; she had spent many nights bundled up in a warm coat and gloves, staring out into that endless void swimming with tiny pinpricks of light from distant stars. She was suddenly overcome with nostalgia, remembering when she was so small, when she could walk around in broad daylight and not have to worry about obsessive fans or paparazzi. She sighed. Sometimes she wished she could have a simpler life of fashion and battling.

She was snapped out of her reverie when a voice floated through the darkness, apparently right next to her ear.

"Azure Override."

"What? Who's the... The... No..."

She zoned out, staring straight ahead as a single tear ran down her face. She was paralysed, completely unable to move. Then the voice came again.

"Come to us."

She began walking again, heading towards the outskirts of the city. Despite not being told where to go, she simply knew, like the instinct was in her blood. She soon came upon a shed on the edge of the city. When she drew close, the door was opened, a Blue Ring operative stood inside. She led Callie down several flights of stairs into a narrow corridor, taking her to the door at the end and ushering her through. Inside, lounging on a bed, was Atra. She sat up when Callie entered, pulling a desk around and picking up a pencil. Seida stood at the other end of the room, staring at Callie with his awful black eyes.

"Good to see that the post-hypnotic trigger was applied correctly. Tell me, has that whale become one of us yet?"

"No."

"Hmm, I haven't given him any orders yet. That's fine. Is there anything he has other than his enormous guns and spiked dusters I should know about?" She moved a hand across her gut unconsciously.

"He has food that heals him."

"That could be our undoing. Did you have some?"

Callie flinched and opened her mouth to speak, but Atra held up a hand, silencing her.

"Oh dear, you naughty girl. His food removed some of the venom from your system, did it? Well, we're going to have to fix that. Seida!"

The man looked up.

"Leave us. See to it that the giant ends up in our clutches."

He nodded and left, closing the door behind him. Inside, Atra beckoned to Callie, who stared with fear and disgust in her eyes as her body moved of its own accord. She was straining against it, her steps slow and stressed. Atra giggled, blue liquid beginning to build behind her salacious grin.

"Why don't you come and lie down, huh? You look tired, walking so far in the cold... I'll see to it that you get properly broken in this time."


	6. The Time to Panic

**I appreciate that a lot of you may not have liked certain circumstances in the last chapter. The reason I wrote what I did is because this is linked to the r/splatoon, which means I can't go into incredibly gory detail. Also, _please_ don't put things like "Update soon?" in the Reviews section, as these things take time, and I have other work to do. Other than that, enjoy the next chapter.**

"No way! He says he did what?"

Misha laughed loudly. Marie was leaning across the table, in disbelief over the mercenary's story.

"He says- hah- he says that skeleton was missing, and doctor vanished!"

Marie burst out laughing, wiping a tear from her eye.

"He stole his skeleton!"

She calmed down slightly, taking a sip from her drink. She had long since replaced her coffee with juice, deciding that she actually wanted to get some sleep. However, that plan had soon faded when she and Misha had begun trading stories.

"And that is how Medic lost medical license."

Marie spat out her current mouthful, spluttering with laughter before coughing to remove the juice from her throat, rocking back on her chair.

"And you _still_ let him treat you?" She managed between gasps.

"He is good at job." Misha said with a shrug.

"Wow... You trust him that much, huh?"

"He is much-needed credit to team. Without Medic, I think we would have lost some facilities to robots."

Marie leaned forward again, resting her head on one of her hands.

"You mentioned these robots a while ago. What actually happened?"

Misha's face fell, and Marie picked up on it.

"I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to..."

"No, is fine. It may take while."

Marie looked to the clock on the wall. Half eleven at night. She shrugged. Misha nodded and began talking.

"Team was hired by Redmond Mann to fight team made by Blutarch Mann for pits of gravel. Those were war games."

"But you made it sound so fun..." She garnered a glare from Misha in response. "Right, sorry."

"This carried on for months. But, recently, third brother called Gray Mann killed Red and Blu, and took control. He built robots that run on money, and sent them to destroy facilities. We stopped being paid to fight BLU team, and got paid to fight robots instead. Team was me, Engineer, Medic, Scout, Pyro and Demoman. We were defending town from robots when accident happened."

"That's when you ended up here."

"Da."

"What were your teammates like? I mean, teams don't last very long here, unless a load of friends go battling at the same time."

Misha grinned.

"I told you about Medic. Scout is small, fast, annoying. He hits things with bat. Demoman is loud. He is good man, likes blowing things up. Drinks a lot too."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Misha raised an eyebrow.

"Inklings to not have alcohol?"

"Oh, I see. We do, but not many people drink it because it has water in it. It's quite spicy, and not many people like that."

Misha nodded before continuing.

"Engineer is clever. He builds machines to help us. He has sentry gun, that shoots things on its own, dispenser, which refills ammo and heals, and

Teleporters, which... Teleport us. He is very tactical. There's me. I use big gun. I often go with Medic because he can make me invincible!" He punctuated his last statement with a short laugh and grin, before his expression fell. "Pyro is strange. We don't know much about it... Other than it burns things. It... Sees things differently."

"They all sound like... Interesting people." Marie said, quickly counting something up on her fingers. "That's only six. I thought you said there were nine of you in the war games?"

"Oh! Da, there is also Soldier, who uses rocket launcher and shovel. He is mad, still thinks he's fighting World War Two."

"I'm sorry, the entire world had a war?"

"Is very long story."

"I'm sure we can..."

"Was war between whole world that lasted six years. Is very long story."

"Right." Marie sipped her drink. "The other two?"

"There is Sniper, who sits far away with rifle. He likes single shot kills. Always says he is professional."

"Sounds like my kind of guy."

Misha arched an eyebrow and Marie flushed crimson.

"Not like that! I mean using long-range weapons! Chargers!"

"Right." Misha snorted with laughter. "Last one is Spy. Do not panic, this one is on my side. He wears red instead of blue. He is basically the same as BLU Spy."

"Your team sounds very... Diverse. Do you all get along?"

"Mostly. But, Sniper does not like Spy. I do not like Scout."

"Can I ask why?"

"Scout is annoying and steals my Sandviches. Sniper thinks Spy is posh coward. Spy thinks Sniper is dirty bushman."

Misha was about to start elaborating, but Marie stopped him and pointed across the table. Misha turned, and smiled. Corlu had fallen asleep, her head resting on her arms, a glass of juice stood half full in front of her.

"Aww, looks like someone's tired." Marie said. "You can put her in the guest room. It's just through there, first door on the left."

Misha placed a hand under both Corlu's neck and knees and lifted her up, carrying her into the bedroom and carefully placing her down, moving a cover over her before stepping out, closing the door as quietly as possible.

 _Spy and Octolings will not hurt her. I won't let them._

Misha sat down at the table, about to start talking again when the door to the apartment opened, Callie walking in looking rather worn out.

"Callie! Are you alright? Enjoy your walk?" Marie asked.

"Yeah, but I'd have enjoyed it more if I didn't lug this all the way here."

She dropped the slab on the table, the wood bending slightly under its weight.

"Found it in Inkopolis, by the blast where the Spy appeared." She huffed, wiping sweat from her forehead. "That thing's heavy as hell. No need to thank me. I'm taking a bath."

Marie saw Misha's shocked expression and quickly put two and two together, since he knew what water did to Inklings.

"It's in ink, don't worry. She's not going to dissociate."

He nodded before leaning over the table, inspecting the slab again, trying to think about its meaning.

"Something is keeping me here... But what?"

"Hmm? What is it, Misha?"

"Is message from Engineer. To teleport me back, I need to destroy what is keeping me here."

Marie looked at the slab, sinking into deep thought.

"I guess it means the respawning pads, but we can't just destroy them. It would deprive us of our sport. Not that it matters if we can't get those Zapfish back. Eventually the backup power will run out and we would have a severe haunting problem."

Misha thought for a few seconds.

"What would happen if Inkling was killed with no spawn pad?" He asked.

"First of all, it's Splatted, not killed, since we don't actually wind up dead because of ink, and to answer your question, I imagine their spirit would sort of just hang around, unable to interact or communicate."

"Then we go get Zapfish back tomorrow."

"Hah, why not. Callie and I aren't busy tomorrow."

"Very well."

In the bathroom, Callie was worried. She was compulsively checking the small clock by the sink, confused as to how two hours had passed since she had left- it was as if a chunk of her day had been torn from her memories. She didn't understand how she couldn't remember her walk into Inkopolis, and she barely remembered picking up and carrying the slab all the way back to Flounder Heights. But even carrying the heavy rock, she shouldn't have been as worn out as she was; she was _exhausted_. To top it off, when she had cleaned her teeth, she had seen a faint hint of blue in the sink after. Deciding that she was too tired to pursue the subject, she finished up in the bathroom and headed to her room, flopping down on the bed barely after removing her clothes and falling asleep within a minute, not noticing the rings of blue staring through the window.

-Octo Valley-

"Alright, here's the plan. Corlu, you're going to come with me and find the Zapfish in each of the Octospheres. Misha, you go with Callie and keep an eye on things out here- there's apparently been some sightings of Octostriker ships, as well as Octolings on the offshore areas. "

"Da. I cannot fit in kettles anyway."

Corlu stepped forward, making sure her headset was fitted properly before following Marie to the first kettle, spraying the metallic device with ink before entering. Callie and Misha stayed where they were, the former suggesting where they go first.

"Marie mentioned the offshore areas, so that's Bluefin and Saltspray. I don't know about you, but Bluefin's closer, so I think we should go there first."

Misha shrugged.

"Where is Bluefin?"

"Right, you don't know where everything is yet. Come in here."

She pushed open the door to Cuttlefish's shack, pointing to a map on the wall.

"We're here now. Bluefin is just off the peninsula there, and Saltspray is even further offshore, south east of Bluefin. I bet we could jump to Bluefin, clear it out, then jump to Saltspray."

"Sounds like plan."

Misha took a ruler and measured the distance between the Valley and Bluefin, and then between Bluefin and Saltspray. Nodding, he stepped outside, preparing to jump as Callie launched herself into the distance. He followed just behind her, almost flattening her when they landed at Bluefin. He noticed that they had both become orange. Misha spotted the Octostriker wallowing in its ship, and it saw them, almost immediately launching an Inkstrike. Rolling her eyes, Callie waited for it to begin its downward arc before charging forward, running down the grate and stopping behind one of the concrete blocks, Misha following suit, both avoiding the torrent that followed. She waved to him.

"Stay in the ink as much as possible. He can't see us that way."

She ducked around the corner and leapt onto the left flat, lifting and slamming her Roller down on anything that got in her way, as well as flattening some Octarians that were hiding in their ink. Misha jumped down onto the right flat, Splasha spewing ink in a huge cone in front of him, the Octotroopers before him trying to scurry into cover. He heard the Inkstrike before he saw it, and he quickly transformed to swim out of the way. As soon as it cleared, he was back up, shooting and laughing as he made his way up the depot. He stopped laughing when he hit a wall blocking his path up. He placed his hands against it, trying to find a way up when Callie appeared above him.

"Just swim up. Cover the wall in ink and- Look out!"

She dived out of the way of the Inkstrike, and Misha backed away, failing to avoid the attack completely. The force drove him to his knees, but he merely stood up, shaking off the damage like he hadn't just had a bomb go off above him. Spraying the wall again, he swam up, marvelling at his swimming abilities. He stood up at the top of the wall and Callie pointed to an orange launch pad up ahead. They waited for another Inkstrike to dissipate before running to it, Callie going first and landing on the ship moments before Misha. She swore the entire craft tilted when he landed. She shook her head and focused on the Octostriker instead, the enormous Octarian taking flight and continuing to bombard them with missiles. Misha simply took aim and fired, the Octostriker too large and slow to dodge the deluge. It exploded, taking the surrounding troopers with it and blasting the well of Octarian ink way, revealing a small Zapfish. Callie smiled.

"That's what we're looking for." She reached out for it, but snatched her hand back when she touched the shield. She scowled. "They make them power their own prisons? That's just cruel. Misha! Break the shield."

"How?"

"Just shoot at it."

Shrugging, he fired, the shield swelling before shattering, the Zapfish jumping slightly. Callie approached it.

"Hey there little guy, we're going to get you out, okay?"

It nodded, and Callie placed a hand underneath it and supported it while she loosed the clamps keeping its whiskers in place. She cradled it in her arms.

"I'm just going to take this one back to Gramps, okay? You go on ahead, I'll be right back."

The two of them super jumped, a trail of orange arching into the sky in opposite directions. Misha landed on the rig, bringing up his weapon and frowning when he saw that it was empty. No saucer floated in the sky, no ink covered the floor. It was clean, and it set him on edge. Callie landed behind him, frowning when she saw the relatively clean state of the rig.

"Something isn't right."

She took the lead, rotating her Roller nervously as they made their way towards the back of the rig, guided by the golden glow from the Zapfish. Callie and Misha both stopped when a faint laugh floated through the air. The sister frowned.

"We've got Octolings."

Callie ran to the bottom of the ramp at the back of the rig and peered over the top, frowning at the mass of pale blue ink covering the floor. She had barely took another step forward when an Octoling burst from the ink beside her, tackling her to the ground. Misha immediately took aim, but before he could pull the trigger, another Octoling darted forward, leaping off his weapon and kicking him squarely in the jaw. A third jabbed at his wrist, forcing his fingers to spring open. Splasha dropped to the floor and was dragged away by a fourth Octoling. A fifth moved to help the first disarm Callie before forcing to her knees and holding her in place, the Inkling hissing with pain because of the contact with enemy ink. The other three Octoling converged on Misha, ducking around his slow punches and strikes from his tentacles. One circled around and tried to tackle him. In response, he turned and kicked her away. He focused on the remaining two, sliding his knuckledusters onto his hands.

"Come. We fight like men."

One feinted left and darted to Misha's right, drawing his punch away while the other charged straight at him, her boot poised for a flying kick to the face. Misha brought his left hand across, catching her leg and slamming her down before kicking her back. The final Octoling grimaced. Misha advanced on her, but a voice stopped him.

"That's quite enough from you."

He turned, and in that moment all three struck, one delivering a kick between his legs and forcing the air out of him. He grunted and fell forward, wheezing in pain. He looked up through watery eyes to see Atra holding a gun to Callie's head, whose expression remained indignant.

"Move, and we'll kill her."

"Little Octoling is bluffing."

"Do you take me for a coward, whale?"

"Callie will respawn if you _splat_ her."

Atra shrugged and holstered her weapon.

"True enough. How monstrous though, unfazed by a death threat. Oh, I know what will persuade you."

She took an icicle from her pocket and positioned the point above Callie's neck. Misha froze.

"Not so stoic now, huh? Your good friend who calls himself the Spy lent this to us for the time being while he practices using his new abilities. How kind. Now, you're coming with us, whether you like it or not."

"Heavy! Go get the Zapfish! Forget about me!"

"Oh, so heroic. I think I know exactly what to do next. Knock him out."

Misha had barely thought of a threat to make before his head was pushed into the ink, the liquid burning his face while he gasped for breath. Nodding in approval, Atra turned to Callie.

"I don't care what you do to me."

"I don't have to do anything to you, it's already done. Azure Override. Get in the ship."

The Octoling holding her down moved aside as the trigger took hold. A saucer appeared overhead, a beam appearing from its centre and hitting the floor. The first two Octolings headed into the beam, Callie following close behind. Atra helped the remaining three drag Misha into the beam, the saucer taking off and heading towards the city moments later.

* * *

The door to the Squid Sisters' apartment was forced open, Corlu limping inside while Marie closed the door. The latter crashed on the sofa, letting out a deep breath while the former collapsed into an armchair.

"I..." Marie started. "Am amazed at how long you can run for."

"It's just you, using a Charger made you lazy."

Marie gasped with false shock, placing a hand over her chest.

"You wound me." Her hand dropped again. "Do you want the TV on while I get you a drink?"

"Yes please."

Marie forced herself to her feet, pressing a button on the remote before walking to the apartment's small kitchen, Corlu affixing her attention on the screen, watching some adverts play out before the Squid Sisters' theme played. Marie immediately stuck her head through the door.

"That's not a scheduled broadcast."

Walking back into the living room and handing Corlu her drink, she sat down and watched the screen intently and gasping when the opening graphic cut to the studio.

"Oh no..."

Atra was stood in front of the camera. Kneeling before her was Misha, the point of an icicle held to his back by an unknown person- only the tip of the weapon was in-frame.

"People of Inkopolis, behold your giant, completely at my mercy. You have sickened me several times with your hedonistic lethargy, so we decided that you were no longer fit to enjoy the surface while we struggled away beneath the ground. Even the arrival of this giant, this whale, didn't faze you. Not even the theft of the Great Zapfish- which, I might add, was ridiculously easy- seemed to panic you. So now, I'm going to give you valid cause for alarm."

An explosion tore through the air, Marie moving to the window and gasping when she saw the smoke pouring from the plaza. On-screen, the camera panned out, revealing the 'studio' to be a backdrop, a replica of the Squid Sisters' true studio. The camera's movement meant that the person holding the knife was now in-frame; it was Callie.

"Oh dear, I'm not in Inkopolis after all. Back on subject, some of you may have seen what this knife does, and for those who didn't, I am going to show you, right now." She walked over to Callie, who looked like she was about to cry despite the blank expression on her face. Atra moved behind her, wrapping her arms around her in a sickening embrace. "Now. Kill him."

The knife shook in the air before it was plunged into Misha's back, the large man's face twisting into a scream and freezing solid before any sound came out. Atra laughed sadistically, savouring the scene of Callie grinning with joy whilst clutching the knife sticking out of her friend's back. She whispered in Callie's ear, and it was as if the Inkling had just woken up; she looked at her hand around the Spycicle, and to the statue of Misha. She stepped back, tears springing to her eyes.

"No... No... What have you done...?"

The Spycicle dropped to the ground, bouncing before coming to rest. Callie knelt in front of Misha.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... Please..."

Atra looked into the camera, faking sadness before taking the Spycicle and plunging it into Callie's back. Marie screamed at the screen, and Corlu cried out. Atra leaned into the lens.

"Message received, Inkopolis? _Now is the time to panic_."


	7. Challenge

**Not every chapter of a story is great. Please, if you think something was done badly, tell me, and I can improve it. Don't just tell me a chapter was crappy without telling me which part of it was. With that out of the way, enjoy the next chapter.**

"Spy."

"Yes, Mademoiselle?"

"First of all, just Atra will do. Second, here's your knife back. Third, I need you to put it to good use by bringing me a load of frozen Inklings."

The Frenchman returned the knife to its pocket.

"Of course, pardon me, but why?"

"We need a deterrent. My plan is to have both the other sister and the girl inside our little fortress so we can publicly beat them down. However, if our broadcast had the desired effect, then all of the Inklings in Inkopolis will either be buying weapons to attack us or buying weapons to defend themselves with. If we show where we are, all of them will attack at once. We need something to stop them. You've shown us that your knife stops them from respawning, but what would happen if you shattered the statue?"

"I imagine the individual pieces would not be able to reform, killing the Inkling."

"That's my theory."

"Hmm. I'll see what I can do. How many?"

"Get about ten, two for each operative I'll have posted on the path out front. Feel free to take as many as you want though."

Nodding curtly, the Spy turned and was about to leave when Atra called out again.

"Did you manage to get the hang of your new trick?"

The Spy grinned under his mask. From beneath his jacket emerged four thin tentacles, each tipped with a bony barb. He shifted, becoming an octopus before reverting to normal. Atra's eyes sparkled with malice.

"Excellent."

"There's more."

He took the Spycicle from his pocket and absorbed it, wincing at the cold. Atra gasped when the barbs turned an icy blue instead of white, mist pouring off them.

"Oh, this is fantastic. Go on, get me those Inklings."

-Flounder Heights-

"Alright... Don't panic, don't panic, the worst thing you can do right now is panic. Stop panicking."

Marie looked at herself in the mirror. After Atra's swift and remorseless execution of both Misha and Callie, Marie had quickly broken down into uncontrollable fits of heaving sobs. She was hyperventilating, she knew that much, and her eyes were red and swollen. It wasn't fair for her to lock herself in the bathroom like she had; Corlu was just as close to Misha, and had witnessed the broadcast with her. From what Marie had heard so far, that was to say, nothing, the younger girl was most likely in shock.

Taking several deep breaths, Marie unlocked the door and went back into the living room. As she suspected, Corlu was curled up on the chair, breathing very slowly and staring into space. Marie crouched down and embraced her, fighting back the sobs that threatened to break her composure again and failing completely.

"We'll get them back... We'll get them back..." She managed between sobs.

Corlu did not react at all, and she felt very cold. She was completely catatonic.

"Come on, I need you to calm down."

Marie first pulled Corlu's arms away from her knees, and the girl immediately curled up further, her arms folding across her chest and knees drawing in further. Next, Marie pushed Corlu onto her back, before taking hold of her ankles and pulling her legs onto the armrest. Nodding to herself, she retrieved Corlu's forgotten drink, holding it out to her. At first, she did not react. But, several seconds later, she shifted her stare from the ceiling to the glass before slowly reaching out with a hand that was visible shaking. Marie supported most of the weight of the glass while Corlu drank, moving away when the girl swallowed and breathed out with a long, mournful moan. Marie realised that she was whispering something, the same phrase over and over.

"He's gone... He's gone... He's gone..."

"Hey." Marie shook Corlu's shoulder, demanding her attention. When she didn't focus, she lightly slapped her face. "Hey! Come on, we're going to get them both back. The two of us are going to march right into their base and wipe out every last thing standing between us and Callie and Misha." She sighed. "If only I knew where to look... Never mind that, our first port of call is a custom weapon for you. I don't care if I have to carry you to Sheldon's, you are coming with me. So are you going to let yourself be carried, or are you going to show that energy and prowess you have as an Agent?"

Corlu swung her legs to the floor, standing up slowly, her shoulders shaking as she cried. Marie almost teared up again.

"Good to see you're at least reacting to things now. Come on."

She took her by the hand, leading her out of the apartment and almost forgetting to lock up in her haste. She wasted no time when she got outside, immediately super jumping to the centre of Inkopolis, cringing as the broken glass of her studio crunched underfoot. Disregarding the shocked stare of the Inklings around her, she headed straight into Ammo Knights, Sheldon looking up while thanking another customer. There was a queue. Marie stepped into line, watching as all sorts of Shooters and Brushes were bought. She noticed a trend- all of them used either a Bubbler or a Kraken as a Super. She and Corlu reached the front of the line, Sheldon wiping his brow and looking up at them.

"What can I do for you? Krak-on Roller? Octobrush?"

"Unique. We have a commission."

"Marie, I can't just do one thing while there's a huge line of customers."

He pointed to the enormous queue behind her, which now stretched into the plaza. Marie shrugged.

"You get started on the commission, I'm buying. I'll sell things to the rest." When he hesitated, Marie raised her voice. "Now!"

Sheldon led Corlu out of the shop floor, and Marie turned around, addressing the queue that was now staring at her with a mix of adoration, fear and sympathy.

"Who's next?"

Corlu took several deep breaths, composing herself as the cacophony of voices, punctuated by Marie's shouts faded when Sheldon closed his workshop door. The girl in front of him cast her gaze around the messy workplace.

"So, what kind of weapon do you want?"

"Blaster." She said after some consideration.

"And what sort of spec?" Sheldon asked walking over to the row of cabinets labelled "Blaster". "You can balance between range, power, efficiency, fire rate and blast radius."

"Maximum range, radius and power."

Sheldon's eyes narrowed.

"That'll be difficult to handle. It'll fire really slowly, about once every two, maybe three seconds, and sap about a third of your ink tank with each shot. You'll be left wide open after a few shots."

"I can deal with that."

"Alright, if you say so. Any particular sub and super you want?"

"Burst and Bubbler."

Sheldon inspected the spec he had written out, considering the different aspects that he had been asked to implement.

"The looks of this, this is not a defensive weapon, is it? Given the circumstances, I wasn't expecting this..."

Corlu thought before answering.

"No, it's not defensive. How quickly can you get it done?"

"Hmm, to edit a chassis and make sure everything fits, at least an hour." He whistled. "This is going to be expensive, at least forty thousand because of the mechanisms needed."

Corlu felt a pang of guilt, knowing that she was going to be spending such a large amount of someone else's money on a weapon. She was ushered back into the shop floor, where Marie was handing a Tri-Slosher over the counter with one hand and scanning a card with the other. The sister merely pointed to the ladder next to the wall of weapons and began calling out orders. Sighing, Corlu got onto the ladder and began searching.

* * *

It was two hours until Sheldon relieved the pair, clutching an enormous case as he emerged from the workshop, metal shards covering his hands and front of his uniform. Marie handed over her card. He scanned it, nodding at the transaction before handing both the card and case over.

"Thanks for running the shop for me. How's the stock?"

"Four more Krak-ons left." She took another order, shouted to Corlu, and caught the roller that was thrown from the ladder. "Three. And we're out of E-Litres."

"Right, right. I won't ask about the rest. Please, leave the rest to me."

Corlu jumped from the ladder, walking with Marie around the counter and out of the shop, Sheldon beginning to fill orders faster than his short stature suggested. In the plaza, they jumped back to Flounder Heights, heading into the apartment and placing the case on the table. Marie gestured at it, and Corlu unhooked the clips, lifting the lid of the case and revealing the weapon inside.

The Blaster was just as large as a Heavy Splatling. On top of it lay a note signed by Sheldon.

 _"Your spec was far too complex for even the largest Blaster chassis. I had to take some liberties and put in a Splatling instead. Enjoy your heavy gun, inspired by something called a Howitzer."_

The gun was a monster of plastic and metal. Both grips were above the weapon, the trigger on the rear handle. Instead of several small barrels, the mouth of the weapon consisted of a single, massive barrel. The motor had been replaced with a large compressor, the Ink tank feeding directly into it. A strap was slung between the back of the barrel and the back of the weapon. What made the weapon strange were the three hinged Inklines on the mouth of the barrel.

"What are they for?" Corlu pointed out the hinges to Marie, who shrugged.

"You'll have to fire it to find out. Let's take it to the roof."

Marie closed and picked up the case and walked out, Moments later, they emerged into the battleground, Corlu opening the case and attaching the hose to her Ink Tank. She then hefted the weapon from its case, straining slightly with the weight. She let it hang on her shoulder while she got a feel for it, swinging it back and forth experimentally, getting used to its obscene weight. She nodded at Marie, who stepped back and gave her a thumbs-up. Corlu aimed for a far-off tree and pulled the trigger and was immediately blown backwards by the recoil. The Inklines on the front of the weapon fed into the projectile as it arced away, causing it to swell before it exploded before hitting the tree, covering a large area with green ink. Marie helped the smaller girl to her feet.

"Okay, looks like we're going to need to work on your stance a bit. Put your left foot further forward."

Corlu picked up the Blaster and did as instructed before pulling the trigger again. The force forced her to take a step back, but otherwise, she stayed standing. She stepped forward before shooting again, leaning forward with more of her weight. This time, she rocked back slightly, her left foot brought off the ground as she fired.

"Getting better! You best get whatever practice you want in pretty quickly, we don't know what Atra will do next, or when." Marie's face soured, a look of fury appearing on it. "She's going to pay for what she did to Callie and Misha."

Suddenly, the power went out around them, neon fading away and buildings becoming dark in the fading twilight. Marie glanced at Corlu, who shrugged.

"Moray, now. Let's see what's going on."

The pair super jumped, landing atop the two towers and surveying the city, a helicopter swooping in overhead with a powerful searchlight. It descended and lit up the plaza. Ignoring it, Corlu tapped Marie's shoulder and pointed into the distance, towards the mountains. One road remained lit, leading directly towards a ring of blue lights at the foot of the mountain. Marie glared at it.

"I guess that's where we're going."

She held up a thumb, trying to gauge the distance. Several sprays of ink arced overhead as other Inklings caught on to the message in the power cut.

 _Come and get us._ Atra was taunting them. Try your luck. _You can't save everyone._

Staring into the distance, Marie picked a random Inkling in the rapidly-forming crowd and jumped, Corlu deciding whether or not to leave the case behind.

 _It's only a case. It's not like I'll be packing my… Nereid away._

Shrugging, she followed Marie, landing in a crouch and lifting her weapon before running after Marie, who was glaring at the figures inside the circle of blue light. Corlu looked also, and her expression soured. Inside the circle, blocking their path, were five Blue Ring operatives, two icy statues stood either side of each one. The pit in Marie's stomach deepened when she realised that each operative was holding a sledgehammer. A voice rang out from the darkness.

"Come on, you know we mean business. If you take another step, one of these gets it. There are two people who we'll let through, and they are Marie, and a girl called Corlu."

A salvo of ink burst from the crowd, aimed at the nearest Octoling. She saw it coming and rolled behind one of the statues before raising the hammer and bringing it down on the frozen boy's head, his entire body fracturing into pieces.

"Oh dear, look what you made us do. You try that again, and this one gets it too."

Marie stepped forward, Charger in hand, Corlu following close behind. The foremost Octoling grinned.

"You two to straight on through. Mistress Atra has a special present for you."

In one swift movement, Marie had charged, aimed and fired, the Octoling's spirit bearing a look of surprise and disgust as it flew back towards the mountain. Marie pushed the statue towards the crowd before turning to the rest of the Octolings. The remaining four were shifting nervously on their feet. Marie fixed them with a glare almost as cold as the frozen hostages as she passed. Up ahead, in the foot of the mountain, gaped a massive entrance, guarded by four more Octolings. They only snickered at Marie and Corlu as they passed, like there was an unseen punchline between them.

As the light from the entrance grew dim behind them, screens flickered to life on the walls, Atra's vicious face appearing on them.

"Oh, you're here! Great. I don't know if she told you- I guess she did, since she's here now, quite annoyed- but I have a present to give you. You're going to love it."

Corlu rolled her eyes and ignored the Octoling, walking in silence. They hit a staircase, and began to ascend. Another screen flicked on above them.

"Did you like the little display outside? I have to say, this Spy is very efficient. I love their little frozen screams, don't you? I'll tell you where I've seen it before- on your whale of a friend."

Corlu shot the screen, the force of the projectile cracking the glass. Marie turned and shot the nearby camera. Atra's voice rang out again.

"Oh, you public menace. These cameras and screens cost money, you know. Not for us, we just loot them. But still, that's beside the point. Why don't you come up here to get your present? You just follow the path, that's all."

Growling in frustration, Marie picked up the pace, scaling the remaining stairs and following the next corridor, ignoring Atra's taunting. She only stopped walking when she hit a set of doors separated by a wall between them. There was a button next to one of the doors. While Corlu caught up, Marie pressed down on it and watched the opposite door open, a button on the wall behind it. Her eyes narrowed.

"She's splitting us up."

Corlu looked at the button beyond the door. She stepped through and pressed it, the door in front of Marie sliding open. She stepped into the corridor beyond, Corlu's door closing. The next corridor was partitioned by glass wall spanning its length; Marie was on the left and Corlu the right. At the end were doors facing opposite directions. The pair advanced, expecting a trap that would cause the death of the other while the survivor looked on, helpless. Reaching the corridor without incident, Marie knocked on the glass to get the smaller girl's attention and placed her hand on the wall.

"I'll see you later." She mouthed.

Corlu nodded, giving a small wave before turning and pushing her door open, stepping into the room beyond. Taking a deep breath, Marie pushed her door open.

* * *

The first thing Corlu noticed about the room was that it was absolutely freezing. Ice covered the floor, icicles clung to the ceiling and her breath was condensing in front of her. The second thing she noticed, something that banished the cold with a slow-burning fury, was a suited man with four thin tentacles sprouting from his shoulders. He turned to Corlu, and laughed. Reaching into his coat, he pulled out the Spycicle and absorbed it before allowing his tentacles to extend. He chuckled and faded into the mist.

"So, I ended up with the girl."

Corlu fired at the sound of his voice, sliding across the icy ground due to the recoil. The Spy laughed.

"My my, what a big gun. It would seem that my _dear friend_ the Heavy has rubbed off on you."

Corlu fired again, and the Spy laughed again.

"Keep that up and you're going to run out of ink very quickly." He said from somewhere behind her. "There is nowhere you can place your ink in here. This room was built to my specification. You can't stop me."

Corlu slowly turned on the spot, scanning the room. She turned when someone tapped her left shoulder and leapt away when a voice whispered in her right ear.

"Peek-a-boo."

* * *

Marie stepped into the room onto a catwalk, the door grinding shut behind her. Looking around, she saw there were even more gantries above and below her. In fact, she couldn't even see the bottom of the room, there were just walkways suspended in a void, and nothing but a mesh between her and that void.

 _I won't be able to shift in here_. Marie realised before a flash of colour caught her attention, and she growled when a shirtless Seida dropped from the ceiling, landing in a crouch a short distance away from her. He stood up, stretching is arms and back before staring at her, speaking in his awful, hoarse, whisper.

"You... Have drawn the short straw."

Marie backed away, keeping her scope zeroed on Seida's chest at all times. She had no exact idea where his vitals were- not that it mattered using ink- so she aimed where she was least likely to miss.

 _I'll never miss. Not now._

Seida stretched his fingers out in front of him before performing a lunge on each leg, stretching himself out and limbering up while Marie continued to back away.

"Be… serious. Do you really think… you can defeat us?" Seida leaned towards her as her back hit the closed door. "You have… no hope."


	8. Finale

**This is the final chapter. Enjoy.**

"Doc."

"Ja?"

"I want you to be ready with an Übercharge. I don't know how much damage this could do to Heavy, or how much damage the residual energy could do."

"Right. When will we try and pull him back?"

"In a few hours. The pad still needs to be charged."

* * *

Seida continued to close in, forcing Marie to the wall. She was cornered. She aimed and fired, the fully-charged round causing Seida to stagger, but he kept on coming. She fired again and again, trying to do enough so that she may splat him. Her tank clicked empty, and Seida grinned. He suddenly darted forward, spinning on one foot and delivering a brutal kick with the other. Acting on instinct, Marie shifted to avoid the attack that she was sure would've taken her head off and immediately fell through the grates that made up the floor of the catwalk. She shifted back almost immediately, grabbing onto the underside and climbing along the catwalk. Above her, Seida followed with a deliberately slow pace, easily matching her speed.

"I wonder... How long you can keep this up for..."

He increased his speed and brought his foot down on Marie's fingers, and she yelped in pain. Below her, there was another catwalk, but she couldn't move her fingers with Seida stood on them. He caught her off-guard while she was searching her pockets by flipping over the side of the walkway, catching himself on the edge of it and swinging underneath, delivering another kick, one that Marie had no chance to avoid. She cried out as her fingers came loose and she was sent sailing backwards, landing hard on the catwalk below. Seida swung after her, landing and standing up, taking on a faint tinge of red. Marie scrambled to her feet.

 _Remember, you're an agent. You can take this guy._

She raised her arms in front of her, swapping nervously when she saw how thin her arms were compared to his. Seida noticed, and grinned.

"Are you... Finally going to fight?"

He moved again, letting loose with a right hook that Marie ducked under. She dived forward and delivered an uppercut between his legs, and he folded as the pain hit him. She stood up behind him.

"No amount of muscle's gonna protect that, you freak."

"Playing dirty, are we? Fine..." He turned to her, fury etched into his face as a flash of colour rippled across his chest. "I can play dirty."

* * *

Corlu was close to tears, and almost broke down when the Nereid clicked empty. Her ink would refill, albeit very slowly. She didn't have that sort of time. She set down the heavy gun, shaking away the aching in her arms. The Spy's laugh floated from the mist.

"Are you trying to surrender? It's too late for that."

He blurred past, a barbed tentacle slicing into her arm as he went.

"I would suggest you run, but where, oh where could you run to? Poor girl."

Another pass saw a cut open on her leg. It quickly healed itself. She backed away, turning at all times to at least make it more difficult for the Spy to get a decent shot at her back. She spotted a patch of icicles growing from the floor, and broke one off by kicking at it. She then tore off a strip of her shirt, crying internally for a short moment before wrapping the fabric around the wide end of the icicle. She moved back towards what she thought was the centre of the room, testing her new weapon's weight. The Spy made a sound if both surprise and interest.

"Ah, clever. I see. Forgoing your heavy weapon to take on an elusive target is a smart idea. Mind you..." He appeared in front of her, brandishing his own Spycicle. "I do love fencing _. En garde_."

The pair circled each other, the Spy flashing Corlu a sick grin before he shouted out and darted forward.

" _Allez!_ "

He thrusted forward, and, acting without thinking, she batted the point away and countered, aiming for his throat. His eyes widened in surprise before narrowing.

"You're fast."

The pair circled each other again, and this time, Corlu made the first move, charging forward with an accompanying warcry. Chuckling, the Spy weaved through her wild slashes, allowing some to come close to hitting him before he dropped down and swept the girl's legs from underneath her. He was moving before she even hit the ground, advancing and preparing to plunge his knife into her back. What he was not expecting was for her to roll away from him and hurl a water ballon at him. He tried to duck out of its path, but was unsuccessful. It exploded on his chest, green ink covering the entirety of his front. Growling in annoyance, he wiped the ink from his face.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to get ink off a suit?" He found that he was talking to nothing, and the Nereid was gone. "Hmmm, you are a slippery one. Come out, come out..."

To have been fooled by a girl was embarrassing enough, but there was something else other than his burning shame, and that was actual burning where her ink had touched his flesh. He was certain he wouldn't be able to take many hits like that. Saying that, he could feel his body fighting the unfamiliar liquid off. It stubbornly refused to vanish from his suit, however.

While hiding from the Spy, Corlu had discovered what appeared to be an exit, the only problem being the heavy lock that occupied it. She was certain that the Spy had the key. Peeking out from behind her hiding spot, she saw the tell-tale flash of green where she had hit him with a burst bomb. Moving as quickly and as quietly as she could, she crept up to him, aiming and beginning to squeeze the trigger. She took a sharp breath and immediately realised her mistake; he had heard her. She pulled the trigger all the way back, sliding backwards with the recoil. Spy ducked out of the way of the projectile and returned fire with an ornate revolver, aiming and firing a single shot. He missed his intended target, but was still successful in hitting Corlu in her left leg. She fell sideways, looking at the hole in her leg in bewilderment before the pain registered, and she began screaming. The Spy capitalised on the moment and moved forward, ordering his tentacles into action. Each one took hold of a limb and lifted her up. He spun the Ambassador around his finger.

"Good old bullets. You're going to have fun healing that with the lead still in there. Now then, to business. Atra wants me to take you to her as soon as I subdue you, which I have done. However..." His tentacles tightened around her limbs and began pulling them in opposite directions. "You will tell me where you took the Zapfish you recovered."

* * *

When the first flash of colour had crossed Seida's body, Marie had tightly closed her eyes, ignoring the crooning voice in the back of her head telling her to inspect, to take a closer look.

"Shut up. Shut up."

The only problem was, with her eyes closed, she was a sitting duck, and she was painfully aware of that. She had endured many kicks and punches, and was glad she didn't have bones- she was sure some of them would have broken by now. She staggered to her feet after a particularly brutal onslaught, marvelling at how she was still conscious. She spat out a glob of ink and wiped her mouth.

"Your resilience is... Astonishing."

"Yeah? Well you try fighting blind. Resilience is all I have."

"You will fail if you do not open your eyes."

"What, and become some sort of slave? No thanks."

She raised her arms as heavy footfalls approached, covering her head the best she could from the attack that was coming. His foot connected with her chest, sending her flying backwards. She landed and skidded along the catwalk and slumped against the wall, the Eris Charger digging into her back. She groaned, her healing not fast enough to keep up with all of the strikes. She ached, and was sure at least some of the bruises would stick around for a few days. She gasped when a plan exploded into existence in her mind. Slow footfalls heralded the approach of Seida, the sound of rattle grates growing louder. Ignoring it, Marie turned and quickly located the golden apple hanging from the barrel of her weapon. She untied the polished ornament and hurled it in the direction of the sound. A faint slap told her that he had caught it.

"A golden apple? You would attack me with a golden... No."

Seida had made the mistake of inspecting the highly polished surface, and he had seen his own colours.

"No... You filthy squid!"

"I noticed all of the metal in here had been dulled. It wasn't hard to put two and two together and realise that it was probably because of your damn mind tricks. Throw in a mirror, and oh dear, you've trapped yourself. Keep on looking, go on. I know you want to."

Marie stood up, leaning on the rail. She kept her eyes closed.

"I want you to experience what I did when you took them from us. An endless nightmare. Now sleep."

A gasp, followed by a heavy thud succeeded her order. Slowly opening her eyes, she confirmed that Seida had indeed fallen asleep, and he was now shaking fitfully and mumbling to himself. She prised the apple from his grip and tied it back onto her weapon before looking for the exit. A locked door was at the end of the gantry above her, so she returned to Seida and rifled through his pockets, extracting a small key. It fit the lock perfectly, and the door opened, leading straight into another glass corridor. Sighing, Marie began limping down the hall, using the wall for support. Atra's voice rang out.

"That was a nasty piece of work you just accomplished. Poor Seida."

"He deserved it."

"Now that's just cruel."

"Shut up, Atra."

To her surprise, the Octoling actually went quiet. Marie carried on limping, switching walls when another hall joined hers. Ignoring it, she carried on to the double doors at the end of the corridor, lifting her Charger before pushing them open.

Behind the doors was a rather lavish room, a thick carpet stretching to each wall. Atra was sat behind an imposing desk in a chair that seemed far to big for her. Podiums circled the room, a frozen Inkling stood on each one. What really made Marie's blood boil were the two statues stood behind Atra, and the girl hanging limply in the Spy's tentacles. Marie glared at Atra, who simply rubbed her hands together with glee. A camera was sat behind her. Turning around, Marie saw another above the door.

"You're here! Are you ready for your gift?"

Marie raised both arms in a shrug.

"I don't have a choice."

"Excellent. Oh, but first, before I give you my two prize pieces." She gestured to Misha and Callie. "You have a choice to make. Something in return. Oh, and Corlu told us where you were hiding the Zapfish. Spy can be very persuasive, shall we say?"

She gestured to the Spy, who threw Corlu down in the middle of the room and pinned her with the Nereid. He took aim at her head. Atra pressed a button, screens flickering to life around the room, and across Inkopolis as a whole. She grinned.

"Around the room are another ten frozen Inklings. The Spy was very busy tonight." The suited man took a switch from his pocket. "That switch will activate the pistons above each statue and grind them into dust. In his other hand he has a gun pointed to Corlu's head. Your job..." Atra laughed again. "Is to pick who lives- Corlu, or ten innocent Inklings, all of whom have families waiting for them."

Marie's face fell, and she dropped to her knees.

"You're a monster."

"How sweet. In fact, to make it even easier for you, I'll make these two watch!"

Ink filled the chamber where Misha and Callie's statues stood, and the ice shattered, the pair reappearing on a spawning pad inside a glass cage. The pad deactivated immediately after.

"Marie!"

"Corlu!" Misha pointed an accusatory finger at Atra. "If you hurt her, I will-"

She pointed at the Spy. Misha glared at him, and he simply pulled back the hammer on his revolver.

"So, who's it going to be, Marie? The one or the many? Oh, and if you shoot at us of fail to answer, they all die, Callie and Misha included, and you'll be left with the blood of thirteen people on your hands."

Marie counted the statues again. Still ten. The cameras were trained on her, ready to broadcast her answer to the world. Corlu stared at her pleadingly, catching her attention before she winked at her. Corlu wiggled her fingers, and Marie saw that she had made a circle with them. She understood. She looked Atra dead in the face.

"I'm saving the many."

The room was silent for a second before Atra's eyes and grin widened, and she broke into vicious laughter. Misha's glare was now fixed on Marie. She couldn't meet it.

"Wow, alright. Spy, give her the switch."

Keeping his gun trained on Corlu at all times, the Frenchman dropped the switch next to Marie, who destroyed it the second the Spy stepped away. Atra had moved, and was now sat on the edge of her desk.

"Very nice. How noble of you, to save the many. Still, there is a price to pay. Spy, kill the girl."

What happened next happened very quickly. As the hammer rocked back, Corlu pressed the button on the side of the Nereid, her Bubbler springing up around her. The bullet bounced off the barrier, and in the moment of distraction, Marie had moved, her Charger now aimed at Atra's head, a full chamber primed and ready. The laser stood out on the Octoling's forehead.

"No more hostages. No more shields. No spawning pad. All I have to do is release the trigger."

Corlu had her gun trained on the Spy, who was now backing away slowly.

"Atra. Open the cage."

She grimaced, her finger finding the button and pressing it; as soon as the door opened, Misha crossed the room and delivered a brutal punch to the Spy's face. He did not relent, even as he felt bones snap beneath his fists.

"Never touch them again."

Callie, meanwhile, had gone straight to Marie and embraced her. Marie kept her aim steady.

"What do we do with her?"

Misha looked up from beating the Spy and cracked his knuckles.

"We kill little Octoling for hurting people. Heavy has grudge." He pointed around the room to the statues.

"I'd rather have her thrown in an oubliette. She can rot for all I care."

Atra just watched the argument with disinterest, allowing it to continue for a few more seconds before she spoke up.

"I don't really see why you're arguing." She said, becoming blue." You're all dead anyway."

She ducked beneath the laser and pressed another button beneath her desk. Several shower heads appeared from the ceiling, spewing blue ink. She laughed as the Inklings before her desperately searched for shelter in the downpour. Her laugh was cut off by an enormous tentacle wrapping around her throat and legs and lifting her into the air. She found herself used as a living umbrella by Misha, protecting Callie, Marie and Corlu from the ink. She sagged.

 _How humiliating._

* * *

"Doc, flip the switch."

* * *

The four Inklings emerging from the mountain armed to the teeth and with Atra in custody had sent the rest of the Blue Ring running. Misha had beaten the Spy into a pulp, and there was nothing to salvage from him, and so they left his body in the office. They had helped carry the statues back to Inkopolis where they could be safely thawed. Misha had not hesitated in taking Atra to the station and throwing her into the nearest oubliette. The urchin on duty didn't even question him, and instead phoned for a transport to take her somewhere more secure.

In the plaza, Marie had procured a megaphone from Sheldon and was now stood in front of the lobby, addressing the Inklings massed there.

"Inkopolis." She began, pausing for a second. "Atra has been imprisoned."

She was met with an enormous cheer from the crowd, the ones who were still recovering from their icy prisons weakly raising fists. Misha stood alongside Corlu as Callie and Marie explained what had happened over the last few days. He looked down at Corlu, who simply leapt at him and wrapped her arms around his the best she could. He returned the gesture, stopping and setting her down when he felt a faint tingle building across his body. He tapped Marie on the shoulder.

"What is it?"

"Are battles happening now?"

"No... Why?"

"It's happening."

At that moment, a glowing sphere appeared in the plaza, Inklings backing away from it as it grew in size. Marie knew what it meant. She pulled a phone out of a pocket and dialled a number.

"Hi. Yes, I need you to cut power to the spawn pad in the plaza. Yes, right now. No, there's no battles going on. One minute? Okay, okay, that's fine. Thanks!"

She returned the phone to her pocket before turning to Misha, sobbing once before running forward and embracing him.

"Will we ever see you again?"

Misha let out a deep sigh.

"No."

The enormous man turned to Corlu, handing her a neatly folded piece of paper before turning away, striding towards the sphere, Sasha in hand. The power in the plaza was cut off, and the tingling increased to a burning sensation all over his body. He stepped forward again, placing his hands on the almost-solid orb of light, beginning to push into it. The second he made contact, heat began pouring from the orb, but he ignored it, focussing on forcing his way into the sphere. His first finger slipping through, followed by his entire left hand. He pushed again, his shoulder and first part of his head reaching the other side, where he could see the Engineer and Medic standing behind some makeshift shielding in a messy workshop. Misha turned, giving Inkopolis one last look before he managed to get a leg through the field. He was now halfway through. He noticed his tentacles had disappeared on the home side of the portal.

He saw the lights come on first, followed by the feeling of his Inkling half exploding into ink as the field collapsed, neatly bisecting him. Medic screamed and ran forward, a Quick-Fix beam already extending towards Misha as his left side fell towards the ground. His bones grew back first, followed by tissue and organs. As the last chunk of flesh was restored, he gasped, pulling air back into his lungs. He gave the Medic a weak thumbs-up.

"Thank you, Doctor."

* * *

The sisters and Corlu had watched with horror as the lights had come back on, followed by the half of Misha still visible exploding into red ink, crimson spheres of light dispersing around the plaza. The orb vanished, a powerful shockwave rattling the glass around the plaza and forcing Marie to take a step back before she was able to run forward, her colours shifting so that she could stand where Misha had been. She put an ear to the floor, hearing the spawning pad beneath the concrete going at full spin. Corlu came up behind her, Callie standing a respectful distance away, along with the Inklings still stood in the plaza. The spheres of light had fragmented, flakes of light drifting through the air like weightless glass. Corlu reached out to a shard, taking it in her hands. Through it, she could hear Misha, his booming voice carrying through the shard painfully quietly.

 _Please. Please let some of him be left._

She let it go when she felt it tug towards the spawning pad, allowing it to slip through her fingers. Even when Marie's hand found hers, she turned away, walking back towards the alley in which she had first caught a glimpse of the giant. Only when Marie tugged on her arm did she stop and turn back, unsure whether or not to believe her eyes.

The fragment she had held had become green, and was now drawing other fragments towards it, a vortex of scarlet glass swirling in the centre of the plaza. They began to coalesce, taking the shape of a familiar giant. The red light faded, instead replaced by a vibrant green that replaced the missing half of his body. He gasped, falling to his knees and grinning at Corlu.

-Six months later-

In a forgotten cell in the frozen land far north of Inkopolis, Atra sat, lost in her own thoughts. Quickly casting a surreptitious glance at the oubliette's hatch and not seeing the normally-present shadow of the guard outside, she coughed up the paper clip she had picked up from a clumsy officer. She had been waiting for her golden opportunity, and now she had it. She bent the thin wire out of shape and climbed the side of her prison. Looking outside again, she began to reach up, but snatched her hand back and dropped to the floor and swallowed the paperclip again when she heard footsteps approaching. She neutralised her expression, giving the guard a bored look when he looked in.

"Atra Rinxin?"

"It's Rink-zin, not Rin-zin. What is it? Come to snark at me again?"

"Opposite. You've got a visitor."

Atra blinked as the news sank in.

"A visitor? Who is it?"

"Some massive guy with a lot of money and connections, apparently. He's got ID. Stand clear of the hatch."

She stood up and stepped back as a ladder dropped from above, and she hauled herself up. The guard walked her down the corridor she had seen the same patch of ceiling of for six months and led her into a checkpoint. She was waved through into a meeting room.

 _Who? One of my lieutenants? A fanatic?_

She smiled when she saw that it was Seida inside the room.

"Seida. How nice of you to get back to me after this much time. It's been what, six months?"

He nodded, and her eyes narrowed.

"How did you even get the money to do this? And how did you escape your nightmare that that damn Marie trapped you in?"

"Same way he got in. We woke him up."

The door was pushed closed behind Atra, revealing the giant Misha. The Octoling backed away.

"So someone has come to snark at me. Why visit me? You know what I did. You should hate me."

"Don't get me wrong. I hate you. I want to crush you beneath my fists. It would be so easy. But, you deserve worse."

The giant snapped his fingers, and Atra felt her mind began to slip as colour pulsed across Seida.

"Five minutes until the effect starts. You will hallucinate for twenty three hours a day. One hour break every day, then back to hallucinating. No amount of therapy will cure you."

Once Seida stopped glowing, Misha accompanied the guard who escorted Atra back to her cell, standing above the hatch as he counted the seconds pass. When the panicked grunts and intermittent screams started, Misha turned on his heel and left, his final grudge against Atra now fulfilled.

 **As this is the last chapter, I have nowhere I can answer reviews other than via PM or in the ask thread that will be set up on r/splatoon. Thanks for reading this story inspired by an RP game of Cards Against Humanity.**


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